PR 

3521 
A3 





Rook . A '3 






MILTON'S 



FAMILIAR LETTERS 



MILTON'S 



FAMILIAR LETTERS. 



1;^'^ 



Evuminitti from the Hatt'n, tofth ^otcs, 



JOHN HALL. 



^hilatiel^jfita : 

PUBLISHED BY E. LITTEIJ. 

No. 136 Chesnut Street. 

1829. 



-TK3 



rs?* 



■ ^ \^'\ 



Eastern District of Pennsylvania, to wit : 

BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the fourteenth tlay of April, in the 
fifty-third year of the independence of the United States of America, 
A.D. 1829, E. Litteil, of the said district, hath deposited in this office 
the title of a book, the right whereof he claims as proprietor, in the 
words following, to wit : 

" Milton's Familiar Letters. Translated fromthe'Latin, with Notes, 
by John Hall." 

In conformity to the act of the Congress of the United States, en- 
titled, " An act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the co- 
pies of maps, charts, and books to the authors and proprietors of such 
copies during the times therein mentioned ;" and also to the act enti- 
tled, " An act supplementary to an act, entitled, 'An act for the en- 
couragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and 
books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies during the times 
therein mentioned,' and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of 
designing, engraving, and etching historical and other prints." 

D. CALDWELL, 
Clerk of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. 



Printed by James Kay, Jun. ^ Co. 

Printers to the Philadelphia Medical Society, 

Library Street, Philadelphia. 



The domestic correspondence of 
Milton possesses a value independent on 
positive merit; and how^ever little attrac- 
tiveness this collection may offer in other 
respects, the name of the author must re- 
flect upon it an adventitious importance. — 
This consideration v^as the only literary 
motive to the present publication. 

The Epistolx Familiar es were published 
by Milton in 1674, the year of his death. 
It is believed that they are the only known 
remains of his private letters, with the ex- 
ception of one which is given by several of 
his biographers, and a note lately disco- 
vered in the English archives and printed 



in the recent edition of his life by Mr Todd. 
And although it seems unaccountable that 
they have been heretofore neglected and 
almost unmentioned, yet the Translator has 
no reason to think that he has been antici- 
pated. 

He has studied to make the translation 
as plain and exact as the difference of phra- 
seology would admit, and to insert no more 
in annotation than was necessary to eluci- 
date, or add some interest to, the text. 



CONTENTS. 



To Leo Ab Aizema, Letter xvi. 


John Badiajus, 


xxviii. 


Emeric Bigot, . 


xxi. 


Benedict Bpnmatthei, 


viii. 


Henry De Brass, 


xxiii. xxvi. 


Charles Dati, 


x. 


Charles Diodati, 


vi. vii. 


Alexander Gill, 


ii. iii. V. 


Richard Heath, 


xiii. 


Peter Heimbach, 


XX. xxvii. xxxi. 


Luke Holstein, 


ix. 


Richard Jones, 


xix. xxii. xxv. xxx. 


Herman Mill, 


xi. 


Henry Oldenburgh, 


xiv. xviii. xxiv. xxix 


Leonard Philaras, 


xii. XV. 


Ezekiel Spanheira, 


xvii. 


Thomas Young, 


i. iv. 



MILTON'S LETTERS. 



L 



TO THOMAS YOUNG. 

[Mr Young was Milton's private teacher before he en- 
tered St Paul's school in London. This connexion seems 
to have been dissolved nearly three years previous to the 
writing of this letter, at the date of which Milton was little 
older than sixteen. Young was one of the confederacy of 
polemics who wrote Smectymnuus, which was, probably, 
one of the reasons that induced his pupil to undertake its 
defence against the attack of Archbishop Usher. He is- 
sued several tracts with that design in the years 1G41 and 
1642.] 

LoADO^-, March 2G, 1625. 

My dear Preceptor : 

Allhougli I had determined to send you a short 

2 



10 MILTON'S LETTERS. 

letter in verseS I concluded that I would not be 
satisfied without writing another in prose ; for the 
boundless gratitude which you may justly claim 
from me is not to be expressed in that restricted 
method, which must be measured by feet and sylla- 
bles^ ; but in untramelled language, or rather, if I 



^ The poetical epistle alluded to followed this letter. It 
is the fourth poem in the ' Elegiarum Liber.' Young 
was at this time chaplain for the English merchants in 
Hamburg, where, it is probable, he was driven by his non- 
conformity. Milton addresses him as 

' ignoto solus inopsque solo,' 



and likens his condition to that of Elijah, when he fled into 
the wilderness to avoid the vengeance of Jezebel. James I. 
died on the day after the date of the above letter, and 
Young in a short time returned. During the Presbyterian 
ascendancy he was promoted to the mastership of a college 
in Cambridge, which office he held, until another revolution 
in the form of the national religion exacted engagements 
to which his conscience would not bend. 

^ ' Nam neque noster amor modulis includitur arctis, 
' Nee venit ad claudos integer ipse pedes.' 

Elegy vi. To Diodati. 

' For verse has bounds, and must in measure move, 
' But neither bounds nor measure has my love.' 

C'ou'per'g Translation. 



MILTON'S LETTERS. 11 

could accomplish it, in the exuberant style of the 
East. Yet, to declare how much I owe you, is far 
beyond my abilities, even were I to appropriate all 
the ' topics' that Aristotle, or the logician of Paris^ 
has furnished, and exhaust the fountains of elo- 
quence. You complain with truth, that my letters 
to you are very rare and short; but my deficiency 
in this ajji-eeable and welcome duty does not grieve 
me, so much as the consciousness gratifies me — 
almost to exultation, that I occupy such a place in 
your friendship as requires to hear from me fre- 
quently. I beg you not to put a bad construction 
on the fact, that I have not written to you for more 
than three years% but in your great kindness and 



3 Peter Ramus ; whose exploded system of logic Milton 
attempted to revive with some modification, in his ' Artis 
LogicfB Plenior Institutio,' published in 1672. Ramus 
early distinguifched himself by undertaking to prove that 
all the rhetorical principles of Aristotle were false ; in con- 
sequence of which he suffered much persecution, but ulti- 
mately became a royal professor of philosoi)hy and elo- 
quence in Paris. He was one of tlie victims of St Bar- 
tholomew's day, 1572. 

■* In the Elegy to Young, Milton says that since he had 
met his tutor, ' ^thon had thrice seen Aries ; that CIdoris 



12 MILTON'S LETTERS. 

good nature, put a milder interpretation on my neg- 
lect. For I call God to witness, that I honour you 
as a father; that I have a particular veneration for 
you, but fear to disturb you with my scribblings ; 
and since they have nothing else to recommend 
them, I am resolved that they shall be rare. And as 
the strong affection I have for you enables me at 
any time to bring you before me, and see you and 
address you as if you were present, I can console 
my sorrow (as is usual in love) with the bare ima- 
gination of your company, though indeed I fear 
that as soon as I should think of sending you a let- 
ter, it would suddenly occur to me how distant you 
are, and my regret for your absence, just as it was 
alleviated, would be renewed, and the vision va- 
nish. 

I received some time ago your very acceptable 
present of a Hebrew bible^. I write this in Lon- 



had twice sprinkled the earth with new grass, and Auster 
had robbed it of its wealth;' i. e. three vernal equinoxes, 
two springs, and two summers had elapsed. Either the 
complication of metaphors confused him out of his mean- 
ing, or Milton was separated from Young for some months 
before he left England for the continent. 

* Not a neglected gift; as in a subsequent period of his 



MILTON'S LETTERS. 13 

don, in the midst of city distractions, and not sur- 
rounded by books as I am accustomed to be; and 
if this letter should disappoint, instead of grati- 
fying you, it shall be compensated in a more ela- 
borate attempt as soon as I return to the walks of the 
Muses®. 



life at least, he daily read a portion of the original scrip- 
tures. 

^ He was at this time a student in the University of 
Cambridge. 



14 MILTON'S LETTERS. 



II. 



TO ALEXANDER GILL. 

[Usher of St Paul's school whilst Milton was a pupil, 
and afterwards Master in succession to his father, of the 
same names. He wrote several Latin Triumphal poems. 
That which is the subject of the following eulogy was in 
commemoration of some recent success of the Stadtholder 
Frederick Henry. In 1632 Gill published a Po3an in ho- 
nour of the victories of Gustavus Adolphus in Germany, 
and a collection of his performances under the title of 
' nAPEPFA, seu Poetici Conatus.'] 

Lo^'DON, May 20, 1628. 

I have received your letter, and, with peculiar 
pleasure, your Poems, which are truly grand, replete 
with the majesty of genuine poetry, and redolent 
with the genius of a Virgil. I knew that it was 
impossible for a man, with such talents as you pos- 
sess, to withdraw your mind and its inspired ardour 



MILTON'S LETTERS. 15 

from such attempts, and extinguish the sacred ethe- 
real flame; since (as Claudian says of himself) ' all 
your soul is poetry'^. If you have broken the pro- 
mise you made to yourself, I praise your incon- 
stancy, as you call it, and commend whatever dis- 
honesty you may be guilty of in so doing. For I 
do not feel less honouredin being constituted the 
judge of so excellent a performance, than if the con- 
tending deities of music had made me their umpire 
—which, as the Lydians pretend, happened to Tmo- 
lus, the favourite mountain Godz. Indeed I know 
not on which to compliment Henry of Nassau 
the more— his taking the city^ or your poem, for 



^ 'Totum Spirent prfecordia Phcebum.' Imitated by 
Milton in his sixth elegy : 

' Irruet in totos lapsa Thalia sinus.' 

' And all the Muse shall rush into thy breast.' 

Cowper's Ttans. 

2 In the contest between Pan and Apollo. See Ovid's 
Metamor. lib. xi. 

' The town of Groll was taken by the Stadtholder in 
1G27, and Bois-lc-ducin April 1G28 ; one of these victories 
must have been the topic of Gill'g performance. 



16 MILTON'S LETTERS. 

in my opinion, his victory has produced no result 
more illustrious or memorable than it. But when 
we hear you celebrate in such melodious and tri- 
umphant strains, the successes of our allies, how 
great a bard may we not expect, if our own affairs, 
at length more prosperous'*, should call for your 
congratulating Muse 9 Farewell, learned Sir — 
again I thank you for your poems. 



■* This was written during the session of the third par- 
liament of Charles L ; which obtained the Petition of 
Right. 

The reader of these letters will be frequently reminded 
of Horace's Flatterer : 

' Discedo AlcfBUS puncto illius. Ille meo quis ? 
' Quis nisi,' &c. 

and be obliged to qualify the assertion of Dr Johnson, that 
Milton ' of his praise was very frugal.' 



x\IILTON'S LETTERS. 17 



III. 



TO ALEXANDER GILL. 



Cambkidge, July 2, 1628. 

I wrote my last, not so much with the design of 
answering you, as of obtaining a letter in return : 
and I secretly resolved that another should shortly 
follow, in which I would reply somewhat more at 
large to your very friendly provocation. But although 
I did not promise it, I confess you would be fairly 
entitled to this, since a single one of yours can only 
be repaid by at least two such as mine — if more ex- 
actly calculated, indeed not by a hundred. The 
thing I have alluded to rather obscurely, (on which 
I was beginning to labour, under great pressure for 
time when yours reached me,) is herein enclosed. 
One of the fellows of college who had to appear in 
a public philosophical disputation, happened to 
commit to my inexperience the poem which is annu- 
3 



18 MILTON'S LETTERS. 

ally composed on the question : he having given up 
trifles of that kind, and bestowed his attention on 
matters of importance^. Having been printed^, I 
send you a copy, knowing you to be a very acute 
judge of poetry, and a very candid one of mine. And 
if you condescend to communicate some of your 
own in return, no one will be better pleased with 
them ; there may be, I confess, some who can more 
critically estimate their excellence. Whenever I 
recall our almost perpetual conversations (which, 
whether at Athens or the Academy^, I desire and 
seek,) I immediately reflect, and not without repin- 
ing, of how much benefit our separation defrauds me, 
who never left you without a consciousness of some 
literary accession, as if I had been at an empori- 
um of learning. With us here, I know it to be the 
fact, that there are scarcely any who, ignorant and 



1 This production is entitled ' Naturam non pati se- 
nium,,^ and is an article in tlie Liber Sylvarum, in the col- 
lection of Milton's Latin poems. 

2 The comitial verses were generally printed for pri- 
vate circulation. 

^ I suppose London and the University are figured. 



MILTON'S LETTERS. 19 

illiterate as they are in philology and philosophy, do 
not pounce unfledged upon theology; satisfied to 
skim lightly even that study, gathering, perchance, as 
much as may suffice for a declamation, stuck together 
in any manner, and patched, as it were, with the cast- 
off rags of others ; so that it is to be feared that the 
monkish ignorance of a former age may gradually 
settle on our clergy. As I can find almost no com- 
panions in study here, I would go at once to London, 
had I not a thought of spending the summer vaca- 
tion in an entirely literary seclusion, and to bury 
myself in the cloisters of the Muses : which being 
your daily life, it would be criminal for me any longer 
to prattle in your presence. Farewell. 



20 MILTON'S LETTERS. 



IV. 

TO THOMAS YOUNG. 

Cambridge, July 21 1628. 

My dear Preceptor : 

The only part of your letter which strikes me 
as superfluous, is your apology for delay : for, desi- 
rable as your correspondence is, how can I hope that 
you have so much time to spare from serious and more 
sacred employments, as to be always at leisure to 
answer me *? especially as it is wholly an act of cha- 
rity, and not a duty. The many claims that your 
kindnesses have lately made of me, forbid the suspi- 
cion that you had forgotten me ; and, indeed, you 
have so laden me with favours, that I cannot ima- 
gine how you could forget me. I will willingly 
comply with your invitation to visit you in the coun- 
try in the course of the summer, to enjoy the plea- 
sures of the season and of your conversation, and 



MILTON'S LETTERS. 21 

withdraw for a while from the bustle of the city. I 
will go to your Stoa in Suffolk % as to the celebrated 
porch of Zeno, or Cicero's Tusculan villa, where 
you, in moderate circumstances, but with a truly 
royal mind, reign peacefully over your little field, 
like a Serranus or Curius^ : regardless of fortune, 
triumphing over wealth, ambition, pomp, luxury, and 
whatever the vulgar admire and wonder at. As you 
deprecate delay, I hope you will in turn pardon my 
haste, for as I postponed this letter to the last mo- 
ment, I chose to write a short one, and that in an 
unpolished style, rather than none. Farewell, re- 
spected sir. 



1 On his return from Hamburg, Young settled in Suf- 
folk, where he was pastor for thirty years, and died. 

2 'Te sulco, Serrane, serentem' (yEneid, vi. 844.) 
illustrates this cognomen of Cincinnatus. Curius is the 
consul whom the Samnite ambassadors found boiling his 
dinner. Tliey are both commemorated in Paradise Re- 
gained, Book ii. 

'Quintius, Fabricius, Curius, Regulus 

***** 

'Who could do mighty things, and could contemn 
' Riches, though ottered from the hand of kings.' 



22 MILTON'S LETTERS. 



V. 



TO ALEXANDER GILL. 

[In 1632, Milton left Cambridge with the degree of 
Master of Arts, and resided in the country with his father 
until he set out on his travels in 1638. During that space 
he wrote most of his popular minor poems.] 



From my Subukban retreat, 
December 4, 1634. 

Had you made me a present of gold, or em- 
bossed vases, or any thing of that kind which catches 
the admiration of mortals, it would certainly be dis- 
graceful, if I did not make as handsome a return as 
my abilities could supply. But when you send me 
such delightful hendecasyllables as you did the day 
before yesterday, in proportion as the value of the 
gift exceeds that of gold, my solicitude is increased 
to find an equivalent for such a favour. Some of 
my matters of the same kind are at hand, but I would 



MILTON'S LETTERS. 23 

by no means put them on an equality with yours. 
I send you, therefore, what is evidently not my own, but 
a psalm of the truly divine poet, which one morning last 
week, before sun-rise and almost in bed, without pre- 
meditation, but under a sudden impulse, I turned into 
Greek heroics^. I avail myself of his assistance, who 
excels you in his subject, as much as you do me in 
skill, that I might contribute something to balance 
your gift. If you see any thing in it that does not 
come up to what you would expect from me, re- 
member that this is my first and only attempt in 
Greek since I left your school ; and you know I am 
more willingly familiar with Latin and English. 
Whoever in this age expends his study and labour 
in writing Greek, is in danger of singing to deaf ears. 
Farewell. You may look for me (God willing) in 
London on Monday, among the booksellers. In the 
mean time, if you can take advantage of your friend- 
ship with the Doctor, who is the president of the 
college for this year, to promote my business, I beg 
you will see him respecting it as soon as possible. 
Again, farewell. 



1 The 114th Psalm: publislied witli his Latin and 
Ilulian poems. 



24 MILTON'S LETTERS. 



VI. 



TO CHARLES DIODATL 

[Diodati was a school-fellow of Milton at St Paul's. 
He derived his Italian name from his father, who was of that 
country, but married in England, where tiiis son was born 
and educated a physician. He was distinguished for his 
virtues and scholarship, and seems, unlike his correspon- 
dent, to have been fond of Greek, as he wrote two letters 
to him in that language. Apparently in courtesy to his 
friend's taste, all the phrases quoted in the two following 
letters are from Pindar, and other Greek authors. T. War- 
ton, who has made copious hypercritical annotations on 
Milton's minor poems, suggests that Diodati is the 'cer- 
tain shepherd lad' in Comus, wliom the spirit describes as 

' Of small regard to see to, yet well skilled 

'In every virtuous plant and healing herb, 

' That spreads her verdant leaf to the morning ray, 

who taught her the magical powers of ' hoemony,' There 
are two elegies in the collection addressed to him : the first 
written about 1627, in which occurs the allusion to Mil- 
ton's leaving Cambridge, which has given rise to so much 



MILTON'S LETTERS. 25 

idle dispute respecting its cause. His own language in- 
dicates that that act was voluntary, and not compulsory, as 
it is generally represented ; being determined ' no longer 
to endure the threats of a hard master, and other things 
to which my temper cannot submit.' Which expression 
has been amplified by Dr Johnson and others, into a con- 
fession that he received corporal punishment. 

The second elegy (1629) was in reply to some verses, 
in which Diodati had described the festivities of a Christmas 
spent in the country, and offered the indulgence into 
which the occasion betrayed him, as an apology for the 
poverty of his poem, which Milton very happily turns 
against him, by enumerating the classical precedents in 
favour of the inspiration of wine and mirth, taking occa- 
sion to explode some innocent flattery — an opportunity 
which he was never disposed to pretermit: — ex. gr. 

'Favent uni Bacchus, Apollo, Ceres. 
'Scilicet baud mirum, tarn dulcia carmina per te, 
' Numine composito, tres peperisse Deos.' — 34 to 36. 

Diodati died in 1638, whilst Milton was on the conti- 
nent, an event which really afflicted him. On his return, 
he wrote a pastoral elegy to his memory, under the title 
of ' Epitaphium Damonis,' in which Milton, personified by 
Thyrsis, bewails the loss of his companion. Almost all 
his Latin poems are excellent : Cowper thought this 
epitaph equal to any of the Bucolics ; Dr Johnson affirms, 
on the other hand, that it is ' written with the common, 
but childish, imitation of pastoral life.'] 

4 



26 MILTON'S LETTERS. 

London, September 2, 1637. 

I now see plainly that you mean to vanquish me 
by being obstinately silent ; if so, take your triumph, 
for I write first ! But if we shall ever happen to 
argue, why neither has written to the other 'for this 
long while,' take care lest you have to own, that I 
am much the more excusable : ' I being naturally 
slow and lazy about writing,' as you well know, 
whereas, you, on the contrary, whether through na- 
ture or habit, have not in general to be dragged to 
literary ' addresses' of this kind. Besides, this is in 
my favour, that I know your method of study to be 
so arranged, that you frequently stop to breathe; that 
you visit your friends; write much; occasionally 
take a journey: whereas my disposition is such, 
that no impediment, no rest or care for rest, no re- 
flection, prevents me from continuing in my course, 
until I bring my study to a full period. From this 
cause, and from no other, (by your leave !) it hap- 
pens, that although I tardily approach duties which 
I would rather postpone, yet, my friend, I am no 
loiterer in answering ; and it has never happened 
through my neglect of writing, that a letter should 
not be due from you. What! you, as I hear, can 



MILTON'S LETTERS. 27 

write frequently to your bookseller, and to your 
brother, either of whom are near enough to hand me 
your letters, if there were any. But 1 chiefly com- 
plain, that you did not fulfil your promise, of stop- 
ping to see me, when you left the city ; and this 
breach of faith (if you once thought of your engage- 
ment,) gave you an almost unavoidable topic for a 
letter. I think I may justly tax you with these 
matters. You will say what you may judge proper 
in reply. But in the mean time I pr'ythee how are 
you"? are you well"? what smatterers have you to 
associate and converse with, as we used to do 1 
when do you return *? how long do you intend to 
remain among the 'hyperboreans'?' I wish you to 
reply to each of these interrogatories. And lest 
you should not be apprised that I have your welfare 
still at heart, know that, in the beginning of Autumn, 
I went out of my road to inquire of your brother 
what you were about ; and lately, when somebody, 
I forget who, told me in London that you were in 
the city, T forthwith, and ' at the first sound,' sped 
to your lodgings ; but it was the ' dream of a shadow,' 
for you were not to be seen. Wherefore, if it be no 
inconvenience, make haste to return, and settle 
yourself in some situation, that may aflTord a pros- 
pect, that by some possibility, we may occasionally 



28 MILTON'S LETTERS. 

see each other; for I would not care that we should 
be neighbours on any other condition ; I a rustic, 
and you acit: 'but this as God pleases.' I have 
many things to tell you of myself, and my studies, 
but would rather communicate it to you in person. 
I am going to the country tomorrow, and should be 
preparing; so that I can scarcely throw these sen- 
tences coherently together. Farewell. 



MILTON'S LETTERS. 2.9 



VII. 

TO CHARLES DIODATL 

Lo>'DON, September 23, 1637. 

Most friends think it sufficient to wish one's 
health once in a letter, but I observe that you are 
anxious to do so as often as possible ; and now, to 
the mere expression of wish, which you formerly 
offered, and my other friends yet offer, you add your 
science, and the whole force of your medical skill. 
For you wish me six hundred healths — to be as well 
as I wish, as well as I can be, and even more. 
Truly you scatter the whole larder of health with 
such profusion, that you ought to be the butler of 
the goddess Salus; or health, at least, should be your 
parasite, so you bear yourself as a monarch, and 
command obedience. I therefore must congratu- 
late you, and give you double thanks as my friend 
and physician. 



30 MILTON'S LETTERS. 

I looked for your promised letter long since, but 
believe me, my ancient friendship did not cool in 
the least, during the delay. In fact, I anticipated 
the very excuse with which you commence, as was 
proper, and consistent with our intimacy. For I 
would not wish true friendship to depend on the 
movements of letters and compliments, which may 
be fictitious, but to flourish and be supported by 
fixing its roots deep in the heart, sincere and sacred 
in its commencement, to continue unsuspecting and 
blameless through life : less dependent for anima- 
tion on letters, than on a mutual lively remembrance 
of each other's virtues. So that if you had not writ- 
ten at all, it does not follow that there is no substi- 
tute to perform that duty for you : your excellent 
character serves as a letter, and one congenial with 
my deepest feelings ; the simplicity of your manners 
and love of rectitude answer the purpose of a letter ; 
and your genius is my correspondent, but by no 
means a daily one, commending you still more pal- 
pably to me. Wherefore, having possession of the 
tyrannical temple of medicine, hide from me its 
terrors ; and if you wish me your six hundred healths, 
by exact calculation, demand them all from me 
at once, and remove the formidable ' bulwark' with 



MILTON'S LETTERS. 31 

which you have surrounded me to prevent my sick- 
ening without your permission, if ever I (which may 
God prevent!) abandon your friendship. How 
much soever you threaten me, it is impossible that 
I should not love those who resemble you. What 
Providence has ordained for me in other respects 
I know not ; but of this 1 feel assured, that 'if in 
any one, he has instilled in me, a great admiration 
of moral excellence ;' nor did Ceres, in the fable, 
seek her daughter^ with as much toil, as I have this 
' idea of excellence,' like some beautiful image, 
through all the forms and shapes which things as- 
sume : (* for spirits have many shapes'). I pursue 
it day and night, and follow its traces with deter- 
mined steps. Whence it happens, that whenever I 
find any one who despises the opinions of the vulgar, 
in their erroneous estimation of things^, and dares 



1 ' That fair field, 
'Of Enna, where Proserpine gathering flowers, 
' Herself, a fairer flower, by gloomy Dis 

' Was gathered, which cost Ceres all that pain 
' To seek her through the world.' 

Par. Lost, iv. 268. 

2 In a speech very unnaturally appropriated to the Sa- 
viour, ' the people' are denounced as 



32 MILTON'S LETTERS. 

to judge, and speak, and be that which the highest 
wisdom has in every age taught to be best, impelled 
by some necessity, I join myself to him. But if it 
be so decreed by nature or fate, that no exertion or 
labour will enable me to emerge to such fame and 
eminence, I think neither God nor man will prohibit 
my honouring and admiring those who have attain- 
ed, or are successfully aspiring to that glory 3. 



' a herd confused, 
' A miscellaneous rabble, who extol 

'Things vulgar, and, well weighed, scarce worth the praise: 
'They praise and they admire they know not what, 
' And know not whom, but as one leads the other ; 
* * * * * 

'Of whom to be dispraised were no small praise,' &c. 

Par. Reg'd, iii. 49. 

^ The tempter uses a similar argument in Paradise 
Regained. 

' Though I have lost 
' Much lustre of my native brightness, lost 
' To be beloved of God, I have not lost 
' To love, at least contemplate and admire, 
' What I see excellent in good or fair, 
' Or virtuous ; I should so have lost all sense ; 
' What can be then less in me than desire 
'To sec thee and approach thee, whom I know,' &lc. 

Book I. 377. 



MILTON'S LETTERS. 33 

But I know you are anxious that I should satisfy 
your curiosity. You ask me divers questions, even 
of my thoughts. Listen, my friend, but let me 
whisper it lest I blush, and let me tell you great mat- 
ters. Do you ask what I am thinking of 9 — so may 
Providence protect me — of immortality ! What am 
I doing *? 'I am pluming,' and meditate a flight: 
but my Pegasus soars as yet on tender pinions'*. 
Let us grow wise humbly. 

Now I will tell you what I am seriously thinking 
of — to enter some of the Inns of Court where there 
is a pleasant shady walk, and a few companions*. 
I should have a more convenient residence there 
when at home, and a ' more respectable rendezvous,' 
when I choose to make a sally. My present quar- 
ters, you know, are obscure and confined. 

You must be informed too of my studies. I have 
read the Grecian history continuously, until the 
Greeks cease to exist as a nation. I read a long 



^ Lycidas, L' Allegro and II Penseroso were all written 
about this time. 

* There was probably less seriousness in this intention 
than in that which he, with some inconsistency, disavows. 



34 MILTON'S LETTERS. 

time the obscure history of Italy under the Lom- 
bards, Franks and Germans, until it obtained its in- 
dependence from Rodolphus emperor of Germany. 
I shall read the wars of each state separately. 

But what are 2/oit doing *? in what domestic affairs 
are you so employed, that there is danger of your 
city friends being forgotten ! Unless this step-mo- 
ther war^ is more baleful than the Dacian or Sarma- 
tian, you should make haste that you may at least 
winter with me. In the mean time, if it will not 
trouble you, please send me Justiniani the Venetian 
historian^. I engage to preserve it carefully until 
your visit : or if you would rather, have it sent to 
you soon afterwards. Farewell. 



^ I know not what reference is meant here, unless 
it be to the disturbances consequent upon forcing the lit- 
urgy of the English church upon Scotland, and which was 
attempted to be read in obedience to the order of the king, 
on the 23d of July of this year in Edinburgh. 

■^ Augustin Justiniani, a Dominican, published a History 
of Genoa, in 1537. • 



MILTON'S LETTERS. 35 



YIII. 



TO BENEDICT BONMATTHEI. 

[In 1638 Milton travelled through France and Italy. 
At Florence he became acquainted with Bonmatthei, who 
was preparing an Italian grammar. Whetlier his corres- 
pondent availed himself of the hints of the following letter 
on the subject, I have no means of ascertaining, not hav- 
ing found any information respecting either the grammar 
or its autlior, besides what the letter itself furnishes.] 

Florence, September 10, 1638. 

I perceive that by the promise of your Italian 
grammar, which you are completing, (and which 
will place you on the same road to fame with men 
of the highest talents,) you have excited the confi- 
dent expectation of your fellow-citizens, that you 
are about to add light, or copiousness, or at least 
correctness and method to what they have already 



36 MILTON'S LETTERS. 

learned from others; and your countrymen must be 
ungrateful, if they do not acknowledge, that such a 
service connects you with them by no ordinary tie. 
In my opinion, the first and most distinguishing 
honours are due to him, who has sagaciously mould- 
ed the manners of society, and can legislate with 
the best policy in peace and war. Next in rank to 
such a man, I consider him, who exerts himself to 
establish, by maxims and rules, and as it were to 
fortify by their means, the proper method of speak- 
ing and writing, as practised in the purest age : pro- 
viding for their infraction with the rigour of a Ro- 
mulus. If you would compare the usefulness of these 
two characters: the first eflTects the just and inviola- 
ble civil intercourse of the citizens ; the other im- 
parts to it gentility, polish and elegance, which are 
the next desirable qualities: the one provides fear- 
less courage, and intrepid counsels to oppose an in- 
vading enemy, the other endeavours to check the 
incursions of intellectual barbarism — that foul do- 
mestic foe to genius — by teaching accuracy in 
speaking, and a ready use of good authors. For it 
cannot be deemed of little importance, whether a 
language be pure or corrupt, or the common mode 
of speaking be correct or otherwise ; this was never 



MILTON'S LETTERS. 37 

considered a safe state of things at Athens ; and if 
Plato thought, that an innovation in dress and fashion 
portended commotions and changes in the republic, 
much more readily would I believe, that in the event 
of the language becoming vitiated and erroneous, 
a state would decline, and a degraded and obscure 
condition succeed. The general faults of language 
are inelegance, harshness, incorrectness and wrong 
pronunciation : what do these indicate, and that by 
no slight evidence, but that the minds of the people 
are indolent, listless and prepared for any servility'? 
On the other hand, I have never heard of an empire 
or state, that did not flourish, at least in some degree, 
so long as it maintained the care and culture of its 
own language. As you advance therefore, my 
friend, in accomplishing this work, remember what 
an honourable and enduring gratitude you must 
certainly earn from your countrymen. I have made 
the above remarks, not supposing that you are igno- 
rant on the subject, but under the conviction, that 
you are more solicitous how you may best repay 
your country, than to bring it in debt to you. 

I will now say a word with respect to foreigners; 
on whom if you are disposed to confer an obligation, 
a fair opportunity is now presented ; for every one of 



38 MILTON'S LETTERS. 

them of accomplished talents, or refined manners, 
holds the Italian in the highest estimation, and 
thinks that it ought to be incorporated as a branch 
of solid learning, and particularly where Greek and 
Latin are but little, or not at all known. I have 
surely done more than sip both these languages, but, 
however it may be with one who has taken larger 
draughts in proportion to his age, yet as to myself I 
can always go willingly and eagerly to revel with 
Dante and Petrarch, and others of your poets. Nor 
has Attic Athens itself, with its pellucid Ilyssus, nor 
old Rome with its Tiber, been able to confine me 
to their banks : for I love to visit frequently your 
Arno and the hills of Fsesole^. 

Now tell me if there was not a sufficient cause 
which made me, a remote foreigner, your guest for 
a few days, and such a lover of your country, that it 
seems to me I love none better "? Which you can 
remember the more easily, as I have laboured to en- 



^ ' Milton was so well skilled in Italian, that at Florence 
the Crusca, an Academy instituted for recovering and 
preserving the purity of the Florentine language, often 
consulted him on the critical niceties of that language.' — 
Wart on. 



MILTON'S LETTERS. 39 

gage you to add to your work now in progress, and 
almost finished, something for the sake of foreigners 
on the proper pronunciation of the language, which 
might be easily acquired. For it seems to have 
been the desire of those who have written on the 
subject, even to this day, to satisfy their countrymen, 
without caring for us. But in my judgment, they 
would have consulted better for their own reputa- 
tion, and the honour of the Italian, if they had deli- 
vered their instructions, as if it concerned every man 
to seek the knowledge of that tongue : they did not 
care how little desirous of wisdom you Italians shut 
up within your Alpine walls might appear to us. 
This fame therefore is untasted; all will be yours ; 
it has been reserved ii'ntouched and entire for you. 
Nor would it be diminished, if you would take the 
trouble to discuss the multitude of your authors sep- 
arately, showing who is entitled to the next place 
to the illustrious founders of the language ; who is 
distinguished in tragedy ; who lively and witty in 
comedy ; ingenious or solid in letters and dialogues; 
renowned as historians. To a studious person so 
disposed, it would not be difficult to select some 
one of peculiar distinction, and enlarge, as he would 
frequently have an opportunity of doing. In this 



40 MILTON'S LETTERS. 

species of composition, you have Cicero and Fabius 
among the ancients as models, but none of your own 
authors that I know of. Although whenever 1 hint 
this to you, it seems as if for the first time I perceive 
the extent of your courtesy and amiable disposition, 
yet I am unwilling that you should suppose that I 
am imposing upon you on that account, in thinking 
that I can prevail upon you without much impor- 
tunity or perseverance. But as your modesty and 
candour put the lowest estimation on your own 
works, I am desirous of valuing them properly, ac- 
cording to my real opinion of their worth : and surely 
it is entirely equitable, that the credit of granting a 
favour should be in proportion to the promptness of 
the benefactor. 

If you wonder why I use Latin instead of Italian 
in this argument, my object is to confess my un- 
skilfulness and ignorance of a language which I am 
anxious to see illustrated by your rules : and for this 
reason, I hoped that I should be more successful in 
my petition, if I brought the aged and venerable 
mother from Latium to assist me in her daughter's 
cause ; believing that such was your respect for the 
authority of her august and ancient majesty, that you 
could make her no denial. Farewell. 



MILTON'S LETTERS. 41 



IX. 



TO LUKE HOLSTEIN. 

[From Florence JMilton travelled to Rome, where he 
made the acquaintance of Holstein, the librarian of the 
Vatican, whose attentions he details in this complimentary 
letter, written on his return to Florence. Holstein was a 
native of Hamburgh, and educated a protestant ; having 
removed to Paris, he joined the Roman church, and chang- 
ing his residence to Rome, was appointed canon of St 
Peter's by Urban VHL ; and afterwards librarian, by 
Innocent X. He was sent by his successor Alexander 
VII. to receive from Christina, the masculine queen of 
Sweden, her renunciation of the Protestant religion, and to 
admit her into the Roman Catholic church. He was in 
much repute for his learning, and edited and translated 
several works. Among them are dissertations in Grse- 
vius's Roman Antiquities, and notes on Eusebius and Por- 
phyry. He died at Rome in 1661, and a monument was 
erected on his grave by his patron Barberini.] 

Florence, March 30, 1639. 

Although I remember many very respectful 
6 



42 MILTON'S LETTERS. 

and friendly attentions paid to me in my passage 
through Italy, yet considering the shortness of our 
acquaintance, I do not know that from any I have 
received greater marks of kindness than from you. 
When I entered the Vatican in search of you, you 
received me, an entire stranger (unless perhaps you 
had heard of me through Alexander Cherubin^), 
with the greatest politeness, and, having afterwards 
courteously admitted me to the Museum, allowed 
me to inspect not only the choice library, but many 
Greek manuscripts, illustrated by your notes : some 
of which, not yet brought to light, stand in readi- 
ness, like Virgil's ghosts, 

' Within the valley's shade, 
' And just emerging into upper air,' 

awaiting the hands of the printer to give them liberty. 
Others, already published under your superinten- 
dence, are eagerly received by the learned every 
where. I am indebted to you for a present of these 
works, and for two copies of one of them. And I 
cannot but believe that it was owing to your having 



■* There was a Father Cherubin of Orleans, contempo- 
rary with Milton, who published a work on Telescopes, 



MILTON'S LETTERS. 43 

mentioned me to the distinguished cardinal Francis 
Barberini, that a few days afterwards, at his public 
musical fete, which was conducted with truly Ro- 
man magnificence, he waited at the door to seek 
me amongst the crowd, and taking me by the hand, 
introduced me in the most flattering manner^. And 
when I called upon him the next day to thank him, 
it was owing to you that I obtained an audience 
and interview ; which, for so distinguished a person- 
age (than whom no man of equal dignity can be 
more kind and afiable,) was, considering the place 
and time, rather long than very short. I do not 
know whether I am the only person who has enjoy- 
ed your friendship and hospitality, or whether you 



2 Barberini was a nephew of Urban VIIL At this con- 
cert Milton heard the celebrated mother and daughter 
Adriana die fair, and Leonora : to the latter he addressed 
three Latin epigrams, complimentary and amatory. 

A respectable American biographer of Milton, who has 
performed his task with more spleen towards Dr Johnson, 
than respect to the Poet, remarks, that Barberini was the 
deputed ' guardian' of the English, and that the honours 
paid to Milton were no greater than he was bound by liis 
office to bestow. — SanforcVs Life of Milton. Brit. 
Poets, vol. vii. Philadelphia cd. 



44 MILTON'S LETTERS. 

make it your business to perform the same services 
to all Englishmen, in remembrance of the three 
years you spent as an Oxford student. If this be 
the case, you pay your fee to England handsomely, 
and deserve the thanks of the country at large, as 
well as of individuals. But if I have been specially 
honoured, and thought worthy of your hospitality, 
I congratulate myself on your good opinion, at the 
same time placing your civility above my merit. 

As to the business you entrusted to me of seeing 
the manuscript in the Laurentian library, I have men- 
tioned it particularly to my friends, who give me very 
little encouragement to hope that it can be accom- 
plished at present. Nothing can be transcribed, 
nor even a line written in that library, without per- 
mission first obtained. They tell me, however, that 
John Baptist Doni^, who has been invited to lecture 
on Greek literature at Florence, is daily expected 
here from Rome, and that through him it will be 



^ A nobleman of Florence, devoted to the study of an- 
cient nnusic. He v^^rote several works on the music of the 
Greeks with whose literature he is said to have been very 
familiar. His publications were collected and issued in 
two volumes folio in 1 763. 



MILTON'S LETTERS. 45 

easy to obtain what you desire. I should be very 
happy if I could, by any exertions of mine perform 
so important a service for you ; for it would be dis- 
graceful, if all men, and means, and things did not 
cooperate to assist you in your honourable and com- 
mendable undertaking. 

You will confer a new favour on me, by present- 
ing my profound respects to the most Eminenf* 
Cardinal, whose great virtues and conscientious up- 
rightness — qualifications admirably calculated to 
promote the liberal arts — are always in my remem- 
brance. As also is his mild and (if I may so name 
it) humble magnanimity, which has become exalted 
by attempting to depress itself; of which it can be 
truly declared, as Callimachus says of Ceres, but 
with a different sentiment, ' her feet are on the earth, 
but her head touches heaven.' His example should 
teach other dignitaries that haughtiness and courtly 
pride arc remote from, and at variance with, true 
greatness. Whilst he lives, no one need wish for 
the Estes, the Farnese, or the Medici, the former pa- 
trons of learning. 



-*• Barberini was the first cardinal who assumed the title 
of Eminency. 



46 MILTON'S LETTERS. 

Farewell, learned sir, and if there be any one 
more attached to you and your studies, than I am, 
wherever he be, I beg you to associate me with him 
— if you think me of that consequence. 



MILTON'S LETTERS. 47 



X. 



TO CHARLES DATL 

[Milton returned to London in 1639, In the interval 
of eight years since the last letter, he was engaged in the 
episcopal and matrimonial controversies ; redeeming in 
some degree that waste of labour, by publishing a volume 
of poems, a tract on education, and, the master-piece of 
his prose compositions, the Areopagifica. 

Dati was of a noble family in Florence, and professor of 
Greek and Belles Lettres there. He wrote a discourse 
on the importance of correct language, a panegyric on 
Louis XIV., and the lives of four of the principal Gre- 
cian painters, the commencement of a projected biogra- 
phical series, which he did not continue. He also pub- 
lished a selection of Italian prose. Milton names him in 
the ' Epitaphium Damonis,' and prefixed an extravagant 
encomium by him to his Latin poems^. He died in 1675.] 



^ Toland, with his usual simplicity, says of this produc- 
tion, ' I don't think the Italian flourishes were ever carried 



48 MILTON'S LETTERS. 

London, April 21, 1647. 

As it is out of my power to express the extra- 
ordinary pleasure your unexpected letter gave me, 
I must let you know that it was attended with sor- 
row, with which no mortal happiness is unmin- 
gled. For, to read the first part of your epistle, in 
which elegance of style vies with friendship, I may 
call real delight ; especially as I see that you labour 
to give friendship the ascendency. But when I come 
to the paragraph in which you state that you have 
written three letters, which I know must be lost, 
my sincere pleasure is infected and disturbed by 
sad regret. Then a still more distressing reflection 
succeeds — one in which I frequently bewail my situ- 
ation — that those with whom neighbourhood, or any 
other unimportant connection, accidental or legal, 
has associated me, visit me every day, without any 
other warrant, teasing and torturing me as often as 
they choose, whilst almost all those whose address, 
talents, and pursuits attach them to my affection. 



further than in this elogy, which, notwithstanding, is sin- 
cere, and penned by an honest man.' 



MILTON'S LETTERS. 49 

are separated from me by death or the most cruel 
distance; and are so rapidly snatched from my sight, 
that I am forced to an almost perpetual solitude^. 

I am flattered by your anxiety for my safety after 
I left Florence, and your continued remembrance 
of me ; by which I perceive that the feelings, which 
I thought were exclusively my own, are mutual. I 
can not conceal from you, that my departure was 
very afflicting to me, and fixed a sting in my heart, 
which still rankles, when I think from how many 
excellent and kind companions and friends, in that 
distant but beloved city, I have been torn away. I 



2 In this year Milton's father died, at an advanced age. 
He was a distinguished composer of music, and a man of 
education. In the beautiful poem addressed to him, Mil- 
ton flatters his parent by representing his love of harmony 
to be hereditary : 

' Now say, what wonder is it, if a son 

' Of thine delight in verse, if so conjoined 

' In close affinity, we sympathize 

' In social arts, and kindred studies sweet ? 

' Such distribution of himself to us 

' Was Phoebus' choice ; thou hast thy gift, and I 

' Mine also, and between us we receive, 

' Father and Son, the whole inspiring God.' 

Ad Patrem. Covvper's trans. 
7 



50 MILTON'S LETTERS. 

declare that the grave of Damon^ will be always 
sacredly regarded by me. In commemorating his 
death, under the oppression of grief, nothing was 
more consolatory than to remember you all and 
recall you individually to mind"*. You would have 
received those verses long since, if they had not 
miscarried, of which you gave me the first intelli- 
gence, for I took care to send them to you imme- 
diately, that however little genius they may evince, 
even these few lines, composed as a memento, would 
be no obscure evidence of my regard. I thought too, 
that I might thus entice a letter from some of you ; 
for if I had written first, I must have written to all, 
for a preference of one would oftend the rest; as I 
hope there are still many who would claim this duty 
from me. But you, by this most friendly provoca- 
tion, and having written three times, requiring my 
answer, have prevented the censure of the others. 
I confess I ought to add, as another cause of silence, 
the turbulent condition of Great Britain* since my 



^ Diodati. See Letter VI. 

"* In the epitaph he names Duti, Francini and Manso. 

* The gatheiinir of tlie storm brought Milton liome be- 



MILTON'S LETTERS. 51 

return, which necessarily drew my attention from 
studies, to preserve my life and property. How, 
think you, could you find a retreat for literary 
pursuits surrounded by civil war, slaughters, bat- 
tles, and pillage '] I have, however, in the midst 
of these calamities, written not a few patriotic 
workss, which, if they were not written in English, 
I would with pleasure send you, to whose judgment 
I ^3ay great deference. I will shortly despatch to 
you the Latin portion of my poems^ as you request; 



fore liis travels were completed. Soon after the date of 
this letter, Charles was the prisoner of the army. 

^ He must mean his works against Prelacy. 

7 Published in 1645, including Comus, Lycidas, L' Al- 
legro, II Penseroso, Arcades, Odes, Englisli and Italian 
sonnets, Translations of sentences from various authors, 
Elegies, Epigrams, with a collection of Miscellanies in 
Latin and Greek, which, in imitation of Statins, is entitled 
'Liber Sylvarum.' In 1G73 (the year before his death) 
another edition, enlarged, was published. Cowper undei'- 
took to translate the pieces in the foreign languages, for a 
splendid edition of Milton's works, but his ill health and 
melancholy estranged him from it before his design was 
completed. The translations, in the state in which he left 
them, were published by Mr Ilayley in 1808. 



62 MILTON'S LETTERS. 

I should have done so long since, of my own accord, 
were there not some harsh things said of the Pope 
which I feared would not be acceptable to you^. 
Now, I beg you to obtain from my other friends (I 
am sure you will accord it) the same license to speak 
in my own way of your religious rites — not as you 
would allow to your Aligeri and Petrarch in a simi- 
lar case, but such as you used very kindly to allow 
me in our conversations. 

I read with pleasure your description of the obse- 
quies of King Louis^, in which I recognize your 
Mercury, not as the God of highways and merchan- 
dize, (in which character you facetiously declare 
you lately worshipped him) but the favourite of the 
muses, and the patron of the learned. 



^ In the epigrams, the Church of Rome and the Pope 
are reviled with the characteristic indecency of the times. 
There are four on the gunpowder treason, an event which 
occurred before Milton was born. Such retrospective ill 
will to the Catholics might reasonably make him asham- 
ed to send his lampoons to his Italian friend. 

^ Dati was a poet of some note, but there is no other 
mention of this production. He wrote several panegy- 
rics on Louis XIV., one of which was published in Flo- 
rence in 1669, and a French version of it appeared in 
Rome the next year. 



MILTON'S LETTERS. 53 

We should make some arrangement how our fu- 
ture letters may be safely conveyed : which cannot 
be very difficult, as many of our merchants have 
frequent and extensive business with those of your 
city, and their respective couriers go every week, 
and their ships almost as often. I will entrust the 
business, and I hope safely, to Jacob the bookseller, 
or to his master, with whom I am well acquainted. 
Meanwhile, my friend, farewell, and present my re- 
spects to Cultellini, Francini, Frescobaldi, Mala- 
testi, Clementilli, jun. and all my friends whom you 
know, and to the whole Gaddian Academy^". 



1 " The literary conversaziones^ which originated with 
the Medici, were for a long time continued in Florence. 
The one alluded to met at the house of James Gaddi. An 
Italian ode by Francini is prefixed to Milton's Latin 
poems. Malatesti dedicated a poem to Milton. The 
persons named in the text, and Bonmatthei, were the 
principal associates of Milton in Florence : they are record- 
ed in the sketch of his travels in the ' Second Defence.' 



54 xMILTON'S LETTERS. 



XI. 



TO HERMAN MILL. 



[Envoy from Count Oldenburgh to the Commonwealth. 
In the collection of State letters, written by Milton, is one 
to the Count, acknowledging the receipt of an extraordi- 
nary congratulation from your excellency, most kindly and 
courteously delivered to us by word of mouth by Herman 
Mill, your counsellor and doctor of laws.' 

In March 1648, Milton was appointed by the Council 
of State under the Commonwealth, their ' Secretary of Fo- 
reign Tongues ;' as all their correspondence with foreign 
powers was conducted in Latin. This office he held at 
least eight years^. His Iconoclastes, written by order of 
the council, was published in 1649. It is difficult to con- 
jecture his motive for placing this unimportant and official 
note to Mill in a selection of his Familiar Letters.] 



^ Most of his biographers say, until the Restoration. 
But Mr Sumner (Prelim. Obs. to ' Christian Doctrine') 
quotes [)assages from the Council books, in which a pen- 



MILTON'S LETTERS. 65 



WESTMI^'STER. 



Honoured Sir : 

Before replying to yours of the 17th of Decem- 
ber, I must explain the cause of my delay, lest you 
impeach me for so long a silence. First then, you 
must know that it has been partly owing to bad 
health, which is almost constantly interrupting me. 
Then, on account of my health, T was obliged sud- 
denly to change my residence, and I was removing 
on the very day I received your letter. And lastly, 
I have not written, through shame that I had no- 
thing to communicate respecting your business, 
which I thought would be acceptable. For the 
next day I accidentally met Mr Frost^, and inquired 



sion is allowed to Milton, and another person credited 
with the salary of Latin Secretary after the year 1655. 
But in the end of 1657, one of the following letters speaks 
of the pressure of his business, and there is no account of 
any other ennployment to engage him at that time. It is 
probable that he was still occasionally employed on emer- 
gencies. 

2 There were two brothers of this name in the Council 
as its secretaries. 



56 MILTON'S LETTERS. 

of him particularly what answer had been deter- 
mined on (for I was frequently absent from council 
on account of my indisposition); he replied, and 
indeed with some concern, that there had been no 
decision, and that he could do nothing to promote 
the business'. 1 therefore thought it better to be 
silent at that time, than to write what I knew would 
vex you ; and wait until I could have the satisfac- 
tion of communicating what we both so much desire 
to hear. This I hope I have accomplished to-day; 
for after I had repeatedly reminded the president in 
council of your business, he laid it before them, and 
to-morrow is fixed to deliberate on sending you an 
immediate answer. I thought it would be more 
agreeable to you, and be some indication of my re- 
gard, to receive this information, which I have en- 
deavoured to be the first to give you. 



^ J suppose this urgent matter is the same alluded to in 
the state letter quoted above, where an apology is made 
to Count Oldenburgh for the detention of Mill, ' whose 
solicitations were daily and earnest, with all the diligence 
and importunity which became him, to the end he might 
be despatched.' It was this Count Oldenburgh who sent 
Cromwell a present of the six coach horses, which had 
nearly cost him his life. (See Hume, note H. to Chapter 
LXI.) 



MILTON'S LETTERS. 57 



XII. 



TO LEONARD PHILARAS. 

[An Athenian, on an embassy from the Duke of Parma 
to the French court, who had complimented Milton on his 
'Defensio pro populo Anglicano,' published in 1641. 
This work was committed to him by the Council of state, 
who were alarmed by the defence of Charles L written by 
Salmasius, at the instigation, it is said, of the Prince of 
Wales, then in Holland. The king's defence was condemn- 
ed by the German Republic, and Milton's reply was pub- 
licly burned in France; but the editions of the latter were 
multiplied at home, and its author reaped a full harvest of 
honour, whilst his opponent fell into disgrace.] 

London, June, 1652. 

Accomplished Sir : 

Of your good will to me, and your flattering 
opinion of my ' defence of the people of England,' 
I have learned by your letters to Mr Auger (a gen- 

8 



68 MILTON'S LETTERS. 

tleman of excellent credit in the legation to this 
country from the republic), which were written 
partly on that topic. Afterwards, I received your 
compliments, with your portrait, and an inscription 
worthy of your virtues. Again, I have received, 
through the same gentleman, your very kind letter. 
Without despising the genius of the Germans, the 
Danes, or the Swedes, I cannot but place the highest 
estimation on your judgment, who, born in Attic 
Athens, have completed your studies in Italy, and, 
by a full use of your advantages, have obtained the 
highest honours. If Alexander the Great, when car- 
rying war to the ends of the earth, affirmed that he 
endured all his labours, ' for the sake of the glory 
they would gain him from the Athenians,' why may 
I not congratulate myself and consider myself greatly 
honoured by the praise of one. in whom the arts and 
virtues of the ancient Athenians seem to be revived, 
and to flourish 9 From that city have arisen most 
of the learned men, to whose writings I willingly 
attribute whatever literature I have acquired, since 
my youth. If I had imbibed from them sufficient 
eloquence to enable me to excite our fleets and 
armies to free Greece — the country of eloquence — 
from the Ottoman tyranny, (an exploit in which you 



MILTON\S LETTERS. 59 

seem to implore my aid) I would surely accomplish 
it, as no object is more interesting or desirable. 
And what did the greatest soldiers and orators of 
antiquity think more glorious, or more worthy of 
their powers, than by persuasion and valour ' to 
make the Greeks free and independent'?' But there 
is something else to be attempted — in my opinion 
far more important : — to rouse and kindle in the 
minds of the Grecians their ancient virtue, industry 
and patience of toil, by urging them to their old stu- 
dies and pursuits. If any one can succeed in this, 
it is to be expected from no one sooner than from 
you, distinguished, as you are, for patriotism, joined 
with consummate prudence, and military skill, and 
the strongest desire for the recovery of their former 
liberty. And I think that if that were effected, the 
Greeks would not be wanting to themselves, nor any 
nation refuse its countenance. Farewell. 



60 MILTON'S LETTERS. 



XIII. 



TO RICHARD HEATH. 

[Heath was a pupil of Milton, and afterwards distin- 
guished for scholarship. He was particularly skilled in 
the oriental languages, and aided Bishop Walton in the 
preparation of his great Polyglot Bible.] 

Westminster, December 13, 1652. 

My respected friend : 

If I have been of any assistance, either in pro- 
moting your studies, or in procuring help for you, in- 
significant as it must have been, I rejoice, and not on 
my own account merely, that it was so successfully 
bestowed on good abilities, though late discovered; 
and that it has produced a worthy clergyman to the 
church, a good citizen to the country, and a most 
valuable friend to me. I believe this to be your 
character, from my knowledge of the former part of 



MILTON'S LETTERS. Gi 

your life, and from the fact, that you have excellent 
ideas on matters of church and state; but especially 
from your singular gratitude, which absence or time 
cannot extinguish or lessen. It cannot be otherwise 
than that you have made more than ordinary pro- 
gress in virtue and piety, and in the study of the 
best subjects, since you are so grateful to those who 
have afforded you the least assistance in acquiring 
them. Wherefore, my pupil — for I will gladly, with 
your permission, address you by this title — I would 
have you believe that you are high in my estimation, 
and that I desire nothing more, than, if it suit your 
convenience and arrangements, that you would re- 
side somewhere near me, that our intercourse maybe 
more frequent, and our studies more agreeable — a 
plan which I perceive you have some inclination to. 
But let this be regulated as God pleases, and as it 
will suit your expedience. 

Please to write hereafter in English, (although you 
are no slight proficient in Latin) lest the labour of 
writingshould sometimes make either of us dilatory, 
and that our mutual feelings may be freely expressed 
without the incumbrance of a foreign language. 

I believe you may safely entrust your letters to 
any of the household T mentioned. Farewell. 



62 MILTON'S LETTERS. 



XIV. 



TO HENRY OLDENBURGH. 

[Consul from the dutchy of Bremen to England, during 
the Long Parhament and Protectorate : and after the ex- 
piration of his office, resident in London. Soon after the 
foundation of the Royal Society, he was elected an assistant 
secretary, and superintended the publication of the Phi- 
losophical Transactions from 1664 to 1677. He wrote 
several tracts and translations ; of the latter are a life of 
the duchess of Mazarine, and an Explication of the Apo- 
calypse. He married a daughter of Dury, mentioned in 
Letter XXVHL, and died in 1678.] 

Westmits'ster, July 6, 1654. 

Honoured Sir: 

When your courier handed me your former 
letter, I understood that he was about to return in- 
stantly, so that I had no time to send you an answer, 
but intended to do so immediately afterwards, when 



MILTON'S LETTERS. 63 

I was surprised by unexpected business. Otherwise, 
I should not have sent you my book, though fortifi- 
ed by the title of a 'Defence' unaccompanied with 
an apology^. But behold your second letter is re- 
ceived, containing superabundant thanks for so tri- 
vial a gift. 

I had no design of laying aside English for Latin, 
lest, as you have added that to all other foreign lan- 
guages, which I know you have accurately and 
successfully studied, you should lose an opportunity 
of writing it, which I believe you can do with equal 
correctness. But hereafter make your own choice. 

As to the subject you speak of, you must perceive 
with me that a ' clamor' of that kind puts all mortal 
senses to flight; and so much more audacious must 
he be, who has the effrontery to affirm that he heard 



1 In the year after the publication of Milton's reply to 
Salmasius, a work appeared under the name of ' Regii 
Sanguinis Clamor,' &c. Milton was mistaken in attribu- 
ting it to More (a Scotch clergyman in Languedoc), who 
only wrote the dedication to Charles II. and superintend- 
ed the printing of the volume. The ' Defensio Secunda,' 
spoken of in this letter, was issued in 1654, and directed 
against More, and the controversy was continued by seve- 
ral justifications, replies, &/C. 



64 MILTON'S LETTERS. 

it. But you make me doubt who is the author. In 
our frequent conversations on the subject sometime 
ago, on your return from Holland, you seemed to 
have no question about it, that it was More — that 
no one else was named where it had been talked of. 
If you now have any more certain knowledge, I beg 
you will communicate it. 

With regard to the handling of the argument, 
(for why should I dissemble'?) I would wish not to 
dissent from you ; for what is more calculated to in- 
duce one to venture upon the undertaking, than the 
candid judgment of prudent men like yourself, en- 
tirely devoid of flattery 1 Even if my ill health, and 
blindness^, (more grievous than all the other conse- 
quences of old age) and the ' clamor' of these braw- 
lers would permit, I know not whether I could ap- 



2 He attributed his blindness in part to his exertions in 
this dispute: 

' What supports me dost thou ask ? 
' The conscience, friend, to have lost them overplied 
' In Liberty's defence ; my noble task, 
'Of which all Europe rings from side to side; 
' This thought might lead me through the world's vain mask 
' Content, though blind, had I no better guide.' 

Sonnet to Skinner. 



MILTON'S LETTERS. 65 

ply myself to a more noble or useful employment: 
for what in the compass of human affairs can be 
more noble or useful than the defence of liberty'? 
Idle leisure never satisfied me, and tliis unwelcome 
contest with the enemies of liberty, has taken me 
from far different and more congenial pursuits; yet 
I have never repented of my course, since it was 
necessary. I am far from wasting my labour on 
useless matters as you seem to hint ; but of these 
things at another time. 1 will not detain you lon- 
ger; so farewell, most learned sir, and believe me 

Yours, &,c. 



66 MILTON'S LETTERS. 



XV. 



TO LEONARD PHILARAS. 

Westminster, Sei'tejiber 28, 1654. 

As I have from my youth honoured the Grecian 
name, and your Athens in particular, as much as any 
one could, I have felt fully persuaded that that city 
would at some time make a worthy return for my 
good wilP. Nor did the ancient genius of your 



^ Milton's allusions to Athens are numerous in his 
poetry. The description of its beauties in the third book 
of Paradise Regained is full and particular : 

' Behold, 
' Where on the JEgean shore a city stands, 
' Built nobly, pure the air, and light the soil ; 
' Athens, the eye of Greece, mother of arts 
' And elegance, native to famous wits, 
' Or hospitable, in her sweet recess,' &-c. 



MILTON'S LETTERS. 67 

noble country disappoint my augury, but has given 
me you — who are a true Athenian and dearly at- 
tached to me. You have kindly addressed me by 
letter, separated as we are in our situations, and 
known to you only by my writings. And when you 
came unexpectedly to London, and visited me, when 
I could not see you, you manifested the same kind- 
ness even when I was in that calamity, which did 
not render me more conspicuous to any, and per- 
haps despicable in the estimation of some. But 
as you advise me not to abandon all hope of reco- 
vering my sight, and have at Paris your friend and 
relation Dr Thevenot, celebrated as an oculist, 
whom you can consult respecting my eyes if I give 
you an account of the causes and symptoms of their 
disease, I will comply with your suggestion, lest I 
should seem to reject assistance, when perhaps pro- 
videntially offered. 

I think it is about ten years since I first perceived 
my sight to weaken and become dulP : at the 
same time my spleen and bowels were disordered, 
and flatulent; as soon as I commenced reading in 



~ In his Second Defence, he says, that from his twelfth 
year, he was in the habit of stndying till midnight, and that 
this was the first source of injury to his sight. 



68 MILTON'S LETTERS. 

the morning, as usual, my eyes became very painful, 
and seemed opposed to the employment; but after 
moderate exercise of the body, they recovered ; 
when I looked at a candle a kind of Iris surrounded 
it. Not long afterwards, a dimness arose on the left 
part of the left eye, (for that eye became dim many 
years before the other) which prevented my seeing 
any thing on that side. If I closed my right eye, 
objects in front of me appeared smaller. The other 
has been gradually failing for the last three years. 
For some months before I entirely lost the sight, 
every object that I looked at steadily, seemed to 
swim to the right and left : constant vapours appear 
to burden my whole forehead and temples, which 
generally depress my eyes with a drowsy heaviness, 
especially after eating meat, until evening; often 
bringing to mind the words of Phineus, the prophet 
of Salmydessus in the Argonautics^ — 

' Him vapours dark 
' Enveloped, and the earth appeared to roll 
■• Beneath him, sinking in a lifeless trance.' 

Hayley^s Trans. 



3 Lib. ii. 203. 

' And Tiresas and Phineus, prophets old.' 

Par. Lost, iii. 36. 



MILTON'S LETTERS. 69 

I should not omit to mention, that whilst as yet 
some sight remained, as soon as I lay on my bed, 
and reclined on either side, a copious light shone out 
when my eyes were closed. Afterwards, as my 
sight diminished daily, obscurer colours flashed out 
with force, and with a kind of internal crackling; 
but at this time, the brightness being, as it were, 
extinct, a perfect blackness, or mingled with the 
colour of ashes, flows in. Yet the dimness which I 
experience by night and day, seems to incline more 
to white than to black, and when the eye rolls, a 
little light is admitted, as through a small crevice. 
Whatever hope the physician may gather from 
this account, I prepare and compose myself, under 
the consideration that I am certainly incurable. 
And I often think, that since the days of darkness, 
to which every man is destined, are, as the wise man 
warns, many* ; that mine, by the great mercy of Pro- 
vidence, happening in the midst of leisure, and 
studies, and the conversation and salutations of my 
friends, are much brighter than the shades of 
death. But if, as it is written, man does not live by 
bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out 



* Ecclesiastes, xi. 8. 



70 MILTON'S LETTERS. 

of the mouth of God^, why should not any one sub- 
mit for this reason also, that he can see not only 
with his eyes, but that the leading and providence 
of God is sufficient sight^. Truly, if He take care 
of me — if He provide for me — which He does, and 
lead me by the hand, and accompany me through 
life, I shall willingly permit my eyes to be unem- 
ployed. 

Whatever befalls me, my Philaras, I salute you 
with a mind not less strong and firm than if I were 
Lynceus^. 

* Deuteronomy viii. 3, cited in Matthew iv. 4. 
' Is it not written, 
' Man lives not by bread only, but each word 
' Proceeding from the mouth of God ?' 

Par. Reg'd, i. 347. 

^ ' So much the rather thou, Celestial Light, 

' Shine inward, and the mind through all her powers 
' Irradiate,' &c. 

Par, Lost, iii. 51. 

In one of his political works he expresses his consolation 
that his blindness threw him more directly on the protec- 
tion of Providence ; and asserts that he was fond of consi- 
dering the darkness which veUed liis sight as rather the 
shadoio of the protecting wing of the Almighty., than the 
loss of vision. 

^ The Argonaut who could see through the earth. 



MILTON'S LETTERS. 71 



XVI. 



TO LEO AB AIZEMA. 

[Aizema or Aitzema, was a consul of the Ilanse 
Towns. He was an accomplislied linguist ; and compiled 
a valuable History of the United Provinces from 1621 to 
1668, in fifteen volumes, inserting at large all the historical 
documents. He died in England in 1669, having resided 
there in an official character forty years. Milton, in a 
state letter, praises his ' prudence and conspicuous pro- 
bity'.] 

Westminster, February 5, 1654. 

It is very gratifying to perceive, that you retain 
the same remembrance of me, v^^hich you kindly 
manifested by visiting me frequently when you were 
here. As to my work on Divorce, which, you in- 
form me, you have given to some one to be trans- 
lated into Dutch, I would greatly prefer a Latin 
version ; for I have learned by the experience of 



72 MILTON'S LETTERS. 

those publications, how the world is accustomed to 
receive opinions not yet common. 

I have written three dissertations on that subject. 
The first in two books, in which the Doctrine and 
Discipline of Divorce (the title of the work) are con- 
tained at large. The other is entitled ' Tetrachor- 
don' ; in it the four principal passages of Scripture 
on the question are explained. The third is ' Co- 
lasterion,' a reply to a smattering fellow i. Which 
of these, or what edition of them, you are going to 
have translated, I do not know. Of the first, there 
is a second edition much enlarged. If you are not 
apprised of this, or if you will let me know what 
you want from me, I will at once with pleasure 
transmit to you either the corrected impression, or 
the other works. I would not have any alteration 
or addition made at present. Wherefore, since you 
think it worth while that I should have a faithful 
interpreter, I wish you all success. 



1 The anonymous author of ' Divorce at Pleasure.' 
Milton had to resort to much quibbling to bend the senti- 
ments of the New Testament to countenance a doctrine, 
the sincerity of which his personal situation and necessities 
clouded with so much suspicion. 



MILTON'S LETTERS. 



XVII. 



TO EZEKIEL SPANHELM. 

[Professor of belles-lettres in Geneva. The Emperor 
Ferdinand IIL appointed him tutor of his son, and Span- 
heim took the opportunity of studying the laws and poli- 
tics of Germany ; after which he entered the service of the 
Elector of Brandenburgh, whom he served nine years as 
envoy extraordinary. He again changed masters, became 
a Minister of State in Prussia, was created a Baron, and 
sent as Ambassador to Queen Anne. He died in Eng- 
land at the age of eighty-one. He was a man of general 
acquirements, and conspicuous as a diplomatist, scholar, 
antiquarian and critic. His principal work is a disserta- 
tion on ancient coins, in two volumes, folio, printed at 
Rome in 1G64, and republished in London and Amster- 
dam. Besides this, he translated, with annotations, seve- 
ral learned works.] 



10 



74 MILTON'S LETTERS. 

Westminster, Maech 24, 1654. 

I know not to what accident it was owing, that 
I received your letter almost three months after its 
date ; but it was clearly my business to make a more 
speedy reply on that account, which I resolved from 
day to day to execute ; but I find that in consequence 
of other engagements, I have procrastinated it for 
nearly three months longer. I would not have you 
suppose from this delay, that my sense of your kind- 
ness has cooled ; but rather that it has increased ; 
inasmuch, as I have the more frequently, and for a 
longer time, been intending to perform my duty. 
And its tardy discharge has at least this excuse, that 
it is a clearer acknowledgment of a debt, when it has 
existed so long, than if it had been paid as soon as 
due. 

You are not wrong in the opinion you intimate in 
the beginning of your letter — that it is not to be 
wondered at if I am addressed by a foreigner ; for 
you cannot judge me more correctly, than in sup- 
posing that I account no truly good man a stranger, 
or unknown. I can readily believe that such is 
your character, being the son of a most learned and 



MILTON'S LETTERS. 75 

pious father^ and yourself are esteemed by good men, 
and abhor the wicked. And as I happen to be at 
war with the latter, Calandrinus^ has acted kindly 
and according to my advice, in signifying to you, 
that I should be very glad if you would join forces 
with me against the common enemy. This you have 
done in your letter, a part of which, trusting to your 
good wishes, I have not hesitated to quote anony- 
mously in my Defence^ as testimony. I will send 
you the work as soon as it is issued, if I can find a 
safe conveyance. In the mean time, I think you 
may direct your letters to the care of Turretin of 



^ Frederic Spanheim, professor of theology in Geneva 
and Leyden. In the former chair, he was succeeded by 
Milton's famous enemy — More. He published several |)o- 
litical and theological works, and is mentioned in Telra- 
chordon as " a writer of Evangelic Doubts'," 

2 Wood (Fasti Oxon.) records a Cfesar Calandrinus, ' by 
birth a German, by profession a puritanical theologist,' 
who was a favourite of Archbishop Usher, who took him 
to Ireland. 

Toland says, that Calandrinus, Spanheim atid others of 
Geneva, kept Milton informed of all matters appertaining 
to More. 

^ ' Defensio Secunda,' published in this year. 



76 MILTON'S LETTERS. 

Geneva, who is staying in London, and whose bro- 
ther I know there"^; through him our letters can be 
very conveniently transmitted. 

I pray you to be assured of my high regard, and 
of my anxious desire to be thought worthy of your 
affection. 



* The brother was Francis Turretin, Professor of Theo- 
logy in Geneva, father of the more celebrated Js>hn Al- 
phonso Turretin. 



MILTON'S LETTERS. 77 



XVIII. 



TO HENRY OLDENBURGH. 

Westminster, June 23, 1636. 

Yours, by young RanelaghS finds me much 
occupied, which obliges me to be more brief than I 
wish. You have so honestly paid what you promised 
when you went away, that I do not believe any one 
has been more punctual at the Calends^ . Though 
your departure be a loss to me, yet, since it promotes 
your gratification, I wish you joy upon it; as your 
mind is so happily constituted that you can easily 
elevate it fiom the ambition or ease of a city life, 
to the contemplation of sublime topics. Still I do 



* Richard Jones. See the succeeding letter. 
'^ The Roman pay-day. 



78 MILTON'S LETTERS. 

not know what advantage your retreat' can afford, 
excepting an abundance of books. The companions 
of your studies, whom you find there, 1 suspect are 
what they are, rather by their natural talents, than 
by any instruction they derive at that place : but 
perhaps I am unjust to it, because it detains you 
from me. Do you, however, take notice, that there 
are too many of them who pollute both divine and 
human subjects by their vapid loquacity, through 
fear of seeming to do nothing worthy of the large 
stipends by which a worse community supports 
them. But you will get wisdom in these matters 
better, by yourself. 

The Chinese Annals, which you say are promised 
by the Jesuit Martin, are doubtless most anxiously 
expected, on account of their novelty; but I do not 
see what authority or support they can give to the 
books of Moses. 

My friend Cyriac* reciprocates your compliments. 
Farewell. 



3 Oldenburgh entered Oxford in this year, principally 
for the sake of access to the Bodleian hbrary. 

* Cyriac Skinner, a pupil of Milton, and of the same 
school of politics. He seems also to have been a muthe- 



MILTON'S LETTERS. 79 

matician, as in one of the two sonnets addressed to him, 
Milton begs him to 

' Let Euclid rest, and Archimedes pause.' 

The ' Mr Skinner, Merchant,' to whom the manu- 
script of the Treatise on Christian Doctrine, found in 
1823, was directed, was probably Daniel Skinner, a ne- 
phew of Cyriac. The latter was a grandson of Sir Edward 
Coke. 



80 MILTON'S LETTERS. 



XIX. 



TO RICHARD JONES. 

[Afterwards Earl Ranelagh: a pupil of Milton, and 
companion of Henry Oldenburgh at Oxford. From the 
technical badinage with which he is addressed, it is proba- 
ble that he was designed for the Law.] 

Westminster, September 21, 1636. 

Sudden business, as, you know, all mine is, has 
several times prevented my answering your last. I 
then heard that you had gone on an excursion to 
the neighbourhood. This will be delivered to you 
by your excellent mother, now departing for Ire- 
land, whose absence both you and I have cause to 
lament; for siie stood in the place of all relations 
to me'. 



' Mr Haylcy suogests, that Lady Ranelagh may have 



MILTON'S LETTERS. 81 

You are right in believing that I feel an interest 
in you ; and I am anxious that you should become 
daily more persuaded of it, in proportion as you 
make me perceive, that you not merely possess a 
good capacity, but are producing fruit. Which, 
with reliance on Divine help, you not only covenant, 
but offer security and bail for its performance, as if 
I had entered an action against you: and in case of 
non-performance, you do not refuse to confess judg- 
ment, and pay the award. Truly I am delighted 
that you have such good hope of yourself; but you 
cannot retract now, vi^hen you have not only neg- 
lected your promises, but have forfeited your re- 
cognizance. 

The simple assertion that you are not displeased 
with Oxford, does not convince me that you have 
derived any profit, or become any wiser : — that you 
must prove by a far different method. Whilst you 
are engaged in the study of philosophy, I would not 



advised Milton in the care of his young children, after his 
wife's death. The above ordinary expresi^ion serves Hay- 
ley as a text to expatiate {de more suo) on the unparalleled 
sensibility and gratitude which dictated it. 

Lady Ranclagli was a sister of Robert Boyle, the phi- 
losopher. 
11 



82^ MILTON'S LETTERS. 

have you admire too much the victories of princes, 
which you extol ; and similar exploits in which mere 
force is of the greatest avail. For what great sub- 
ject of admiration is it, if, in the country of rams, 
horns grow so strong that they can butt down towns 
and cities'? Do you, in your youth, study to dis- 
criminate and value great models, not as they are re- 
commended by force or strength, but by justice and 
moderation. Farewell. Present my best respects 
to your chum, the honoured Henry Oldenburgh. 



MILTON'S LETTERS. 



XX. 



TO PETER HEIMBACH. 

[Another of Milton's scholars : he was from Germany, 
and the thirty-first letter is addressed to him as Counsellor 
of the elector of Brandenburgh.] 

Westminster, November 8, 1656. 

My dear Heimbach : 

You have abundantly performed your promises, 
and all the other engagements which, in your good- 
ness, you made to me, excepting as to your return, 
which, you assured me, should be within two 
months, at furthest; but, unless my impatience has 
deceived me in the time, you have been absent 
nearly three months. You have acted altogether 
right as to the Atlas, which I inquired about. I did 
not wish you to purchase it, but to learn the low- 
est price. You say they charge a hundred and 



84 MILTON'S LETTERS. 

thirty florins for it. You certainly must mean that 
that immense sum is asked for the Mauritanian 
mountain — not for a book of maps. So much lux- 
ury has been introduced by printers, that the fur- 
niture of a library seems to be as sumptuous as that 
of a villa. As maps can be of little use to me on 
account of my blindness, I fear that whilst I should 
in vain attempt to survey the delineation of the 
earth with my sightless eyes, I should lament my 
destitution the more, as the book cost me so much. 
You may, however, do me this favour: let me know 
how many volumes there are of the whole work, 
and whether the Blaye or Jansen edition be the ful- 
ler, and more correct. I hope to hear this from 
yourself on your early return, rather than from ano- 
ther letter. Meanwhile, farewell — come to me as 
soon as possible. 



MILTON'S LETTERS. 85 



XXI. 



TO EMERIC BIGOT. 

[A native of France, devoted to letters. He collected 
a large and valuable library, and afforded much assistance 
to literary men, with whom his correspondence was exten- 
sive. His only work was the publication of the Greek 
life of Chrysostom by Palladius, discovered in manuscript 
in Florence, which he accompanied with a Latin transla- 
tion. He died in 1689.] 

WESTMI^'STER, Marcii 24, 1656. 

It was truly gratifying to me that when in Eng- 
land you thought me especially worthy of your visits 
and attentions ; but it is still more so, that after so 
long an interval, you address me by letter. For in 
the first instance the opinions of others, probably, 
induced you to call on me : but you could scarcely 
now return by means of correspondence, if your 
own choice, or benevolence at least, did not incite 



86 MILTON'S LETTERS. 

you. Whence I conclude, that I may properly 
congratulate myself: for many have made a figure 
in their works, whose conversation and manners in- 
dicate nothing but what is mean and ordinary. If 
I have written any thing well, I should wish my 
mind and character to be correspondent : I should 
thus add weight to my writings, and however insig- 
nificant might be their merit, I would be entitled to 
some credit on that account. It appears to me, 
that I have not learned more of what is good and 
excellent, from the perusal of the best authors, than 
from what I have drawn pure and unadulterated 
from a deep insight into their minds and under- 
standings. 

I am glad that you are confident of my tranquil- 
lity under the loss of my sight, and of my attention 
and regard to strangers. Why should I not cheer- 
fully endure this deprivation; since, considering it 
not as lost, but drawn within, I may hope that it 
will whet rather than dull the edge of my mind. So 
that I am not out of humour with study, nor do I 
intermit its pursuit, notwithstanding it has punished 
me so severely. The example of Telephus, the 
Mysian king, who did not refuse to be healed by 



MILTON'S LETTERS. 87 

the same weapon which wounded him, has warned 
me against peevishness^. 

In the work on the manner of holding Parliaments, 
which you have, I have taken the pains to correct the 
passages alluding to the manuscripts of the distin- 
guished Lord Bradshaw, and of Cotton^, and con- 
firmed those which were doubtful ; as you will see by 
your papers which I herewith return. As you desi- 
red to know whether there is an autograph of this 
work in the tower of London, I sent to the herald, 
who has charge of the archives, with whom I am 
well acquainted, and he informs me there is no copy 
in the'collection. 

I shall be very grateful, if you will in return take 
the trouble to procure me some books. I want of the 



1 He was pierced by the spear of Achilles, and cured 
by an application of its rust. Ovid was Milton's favour- 
ite classic : , 

' Telephus Eeterna consumptus tabe perisset, 
' Si non, quae nocuit, dextra tulisset opem. 
' Et mea, si facirius nullum commisimus opto 
' Vulnera qui fecit, facta levare velit.' 

Trist. lib. v. el. 2. 

2 Probably the President of the Regicide Court ; and 
Sir Robert Cotton, of the reigns of Elizabeth and James. 



88 MILTON'S LETTERS. 

Byzantine histories — the Chronicles of Theophanes, 
folio, Greek and Latin; the Historical Abridgment 
of Constantino Manchas, and Codinus on the Anti- 
quities of Constantinople, Greek and Latin, folio; 
the Librarian Anastasius's History and Lives of the 
Popes, folio; to which you may add Michael Glycas, 
and John Sinnamus, who has continued Anna Com- 
nena, of the same edition, if they are out". There 
is no need of warning you to obtain them as cheaply 
as you can, since you are not only very frugal your- 
self, but I understand that the price of the above 
works is fixed and known. Lord Stoup'^ has under- 
taken the charge of the money to pay you, and to 
provide for their convenient transportation. 

Praying for the accomplishment of all your wishes 
I bid you farewell. 



^ The Byzantine historians were published seriatim from 
the press of the Louvre 1642 — 1670 in thirty-eight vo- 
lumes folio. 

"^ Stoup appears to have been a government agent. In 
a State letter from the Protector to the authorities of the 
city of Geneva, he is mentioned as having charge of a re- 
mittance of part of the sum of two thousand pounds col- 
lected in England for the suffering Protestants of Pied- 
mont. 



MILTON'S LETTERS. 89 



XXII. 



TO RICHARD JONES. 

Westminster. 

I was much longer in receiving your letter, than 
you were in sending it, as I believe it remained fif- 
teen days where your mother left it. I am happy to 
learn from it your sentiments of regard and grati- 
tude to me: my best care and most faithful coun- 
sels have certainly never been wanting, to answer 
the estimation and confidence which your excellent 
mother has placed in me, and to meet your capacity. 
Your present retreat is, as you say, agreeable and 
healthful, and supplied with sufficient books for the 
purposes of a University. If the delightful soil could 
only contribute to the minds of the inhabitants as 
much as it does to their comfort, nothing would be 
wanting to complete its felicity. And there is a well- 
furnished library there too; but unless the minds of 
12 



90 MILTON'S LETTERS. 

the scholars are still better furnished by the choicest 
instruction, you would more properly call it an apo- 
theca, than a bibliotheca.^ . 

You do well in acknowledging that it is your duty 
to bring docility and industry to all these studies. 
Take care lest I shall at some time find it necessary 
to remind you repeatedly of this sentiment. You 
will most easily avoid that necessity, by strict atten- 
tion to the serious and friendly advice of your ac- 
complished companion, Henry Oldenburgh. 

Farewell, my beloved Richard : let me exhort and 
incite you, like another Timothy2, to virtue and piety, 
by the example of that excellent woman your mo- 
ther. 



^ Apothcca — any repository. Horace uses it for wine- 
cellar. Perhaps the pun might be translated — ' You might 
as well call it a granary, as a library.' 

2 The apostle Paul urged his disciple to imitate the 
good examples of his grandmother and mother. 2 Tim. 
i. 5. 



MILTON'S LETTERS. 91 



XXIU. 



TO HENRY DE BRASS. 

[This correspondent seems to have been a young Ger- 
man nobleman, on a tour througli England. I have not 
seen his name elsewhere.] 

Westminster, July 15, 1657. 

Sir: 

I perceive that you, unlike most of the youth 
of this age, who visit foreign countries, are wisely 
and judiciously travelling, not for the sake of juve- 
nile studies, but to enlarge your knowledge, after 
the example of the ancient philosophers. Yet, 
whenever I read your letters, it seems to me that 
you have come among strangers, not so much for 
the purpose of acquiring, as of imparting informa- 
tion, — to exchange rather than purchase excellent 
commodities. 1 wish it were as easy for me to assist 
and promote every branch of your useful studies. 



92 MILTON'S LETTERS. 

as it is agreeable and pleasing to be solicited to do 
so, by a person of your promising talents. 

You express your delerniination to write to me 
for the purpose of asking me to clear up the diffi- 
culties which historians have, for many ages, left in 
obscurity. I have never undertaken, nor can I ven- 
ture to undertake, any thing of that kind. As to 
Sallust, since you desire my candid judgment, I will 
freely say, that I prefer him to any Latin historian ; 
such is the almost universal sentiment of the an- 
cients. Your Tacitus has his merits, but in my mind, 
his greatest is, that he has as much as possible imi- 
tated Sallust. As I discussed this subject with you 
orally, I believe it has had the effect (so far as I can 
collect from what you write,) of gaining you to the 
same opinion respecting that most able author. 
Thus, you inquire — as he has said in the beginning 
of his Catiline war that one of the difficulties of 
writing history is to make the style correspond with 
the subject— by what method could that faculty be 
best acquired*? My idea is, that he who writes his- 
tory should be as magnanimous, and as skilful in 
the use of his materials, as he whose exploits he 
records^: that he should apprehend and estimate 



1 So, elsewhere, on the subject of poetry : ' He who 



MILTON'S LETTERS. 93 

the greatest events with a commensurate mind, and 
having done so, should narrate them clearly, and 
with dignity, in pure language : I am not anxious to 
have it elegant — for I want a historian, not an ora- 
tor. I do not like to see sentiments frequently 
expressed, and prolix opinions interspersed, lest, 
having forsaken his narrative, the historian in- 
fringe on the province of the politician; he has 
enough in his own line to do in explaining designs 
and stating facts, following — not his own ingenuity 
or conjecture — but truth. I may add, that it is a 
characteristic of Sallust, (a quality which he him- 
self commends in Cato,) that he despatches many 
things in few words, which cannot be accomplished 
without great acuteness and some restraint. There 
are many writers from whom you would not desire 
elegant composition, or a multitude of incidents. 
Sallust, in my estimation, is superior to all the Ro- 
man authors in combining brevity and copiousness — 



would not be frustrate of his hope to write well hereafter 
in laudable things, ought himself to be a true poem ; that 
is, a composition and pattern of the most honourable 
things ; not presuming to sing high praises of heroic men 
or famous cities, unless he have in himself the experience 
and the practice of all that is praiseworthy.' 



94 MILTON'S LETTERS. 

that is, narrating much in few words. Such are 
the qualifications I consider indispensable to a his- 
torian who hopes to adapt his style to his facts. 

But why do I say these things to you, since your 
own sense will readily suggest them, and as you have 
entered upon a path, if you continue in which, you 
will soon have none wiser than yourself to consult'? 
I strenuously exhort and advise you, (although you 
stand in need of nobody's prompting — yet not to 
disappoint you wholly in this reply) by all the au- 
thority which you allow me to exercise over you, 
to keep advancing. Farewell : increase in virtue 
and in the love of wisdom. 



MILTON'S LETTERS. 95 



XXIV. 



TO HENRY OLDENBURGH. 

Wkstminster, August 1, 1657. 

I rejoice to hear of your safe arrival at Samor, 
which, I suppose, is the termination of your jour- 
ney : for you are not wrong in the belief, that it 
is very acceptable news to me, who love you as you 
deserve, and know that the object of your tour is 
honourable and praiseworthy. As to what you have 
heard of that infamous priest^ having been called 
to a place so eminent for learning, I would rather 
that some one had heard that he was in the boat of 
Charon,. than you that he was in the pulpit of Cha- 
renton. It is much to be feared that the sinner who 
hopes to reach heaven with such a guide, will be 



1 More ; who hud been elected pastor of the Protest- 
ant church at (-hareiiton, near Paris. 



96 MILTON'S LETTERS. 

wretchedly disappointed. Woe to the church (may 
God avert the omen !) where such ministers please 
the ears only; whom, if it wishes to be truly re- 
formed, it would eject, instead of inviting. 

You have acted properly and handsomely in not 
showing my writings, except to those who have 
asked to see them ; and this is Horace's opinion as 
well as mine : 

' Lest you offend with too officious zeal, 

' And my poov work' their 'just resentment feeP.' 

A learned acquaintance of mine, who spent last 
summer at Samor, wrote to me that my book^ was 
greatly desired there; I sent him but one copy: he 
wrote back that nothing could exceed the plea- 
sure it gave some learned men, to whom he had 
shown it. If I did not think it would be accepta- 
ble to them, I should have saved you the labour, and 
myself the expense. But 

' Throw down the burden, if it gall your back, 
' Nor at' Salmurium *■ fiercely break the pack'''.' 

2 Epist. i. 13. 

^ Probably his ' Authoris Defensio;' his last attack on 
More, published in 1655. 

"* Epist. i. 13. (Francis.) 



MILTON'S LETTER^. 97 

I have remembered you to my friend Lawrence*, 
as you requested. There is nothing that I am more 
solicitous about than that you should attend to the 
health of yourself and protege^, and that you return 
as soon as possible, having realized your wishes. 



* Author of a work ' On our Communion and War with 
Angels.' He is the subject of a sonnet, in which MiUon 
addresses him — 

'Of virtuous father, virtuous son.' 

The father was Henry Lawrence, member of parliament 
in 1653, and afterwards president of Cromwell's council. 
He and the Earl of Manchester are called in one of the 
books against More ' men of the greatest genius and ac- 
complishments.' 

* Jones and Oldenburgh were travelling in company. 



13 



98 MILTON'S LETTERS. 



XXV. 



TO RICHARD JONES. 

Westmit^ster, August 1, 1657. 

I am very glad to hear that you have com- 
pleted so long a tour without accident; and com- 
mend your good sense in despising the allurements 
of Paris, and speeding where you may enjoy stu- 
dious leisure and learned society. You will be safe 
there, so long as you keep yourself under such re- 
straint ; but you must be on your guard against the 
quicksands, and rocks, and Syren songs. And as 
to the vintage from which you anticipate so much 
pleasure, I should not like you to thirst too much 
for the Salmurian, unless you intend to dilute the 
new wine of Bacchus with more than a fifth part of 
the freer wine of the Muses. But you have an ex- 
cellent adviser on these subjects, were I to be silent ; 



MILTON'S LETTERS. 99 

and by listening to him, you will consult best for 
yourself, afford the greatest satisfaction to your ex- 
cellent mother, and daily increase her affection. 
To this end you should constantly implore the as- 
sistance of Almighty God. Farewell. Return as 
virtuous as you are accomplished, which will be 
more pleasing to me than all your other acquire- 
ments. 



100 MILTON'S LETTERS. 



XXVI. 

TO HENRY DE BRASS. 

Westminster, December 16, 1657. 

Illustrious Sir : 

In consequence of the hindrance of business 
for several days, I am much later in answering you, 
than I intended ; which I was the more anxious to 
do, without delay, as I perceived from your learned 
letter, that there is not so much occasion for me to 
impart instruction, (which you ask in compliment, 
not because you need it) as to congratulate you. 
But I congratulate myself, in the first place, on hav- 
ing given so clear an exposition of my opinion of 
Sallust, and you on your assiduous perusal of that 
most judicious author with so much advantage, 
with reference to whom I may assert, as Qnintilian 
says of Cicero, that he is no small proficient in his- 
tory, who takes pleasure in Sallust. 



MILTON'S LETTERS. lOl 

The doctrine of Aristotle, in the third book of his 
Rhetorics vvhich you wish explained, that 'opi- 
nions may be employed as well in proof as in narra- 
tion,' is erroneous. I do not see what more is 
to be explained, than that by narration and faith, 
which is also called proof, is meant that which the 
orator, not the historian employs. For the business 
of the orator and historian, in narration and proof, 
is as distinct as the arts themselves. You can best 
learn what appertains to a historian from the an- 
cient authors, as Polybius, Dionysius of Halicar- 
nassus, Cicero, Lucian, and many others, who have 
scattered some instructions on that subject. 

Wishing you all prosperity and safety in your 
studies and journeys, and success worthy of the 
earnestness and diligence which I perceive you are 
applying to the best subjects, I bid you farewell. 



1 Chap. XV[. 



102 MILTON'S LETTERS. 



XXVII. 



TO PETER HEIMBACH. 

Westminster, December 18, 1657. 

I received yours, dated at the Hague, December 
18th, and answer it the same day, as your business 
seems to require. After thanking me for favours of 
which I know nothing, and which I sincerely wish 
had an existence, you ask me to recommend you, 
through Mr Lawrence, to our ambassador elect to 
Holland. This I regret is not in my power ', since, 
owing to the very little familiarity I have with those 
in authority, 1 keep myself, and willingly too, almost 
constantly at home. Besides, I believe he is now 
on the point of sailing, and has in his suite the per- 
son whom, I judge from his letters, he intends for 
the situation which you desire. But the courier is 
departing. Farewell. 



MILTON'S LETTERS. 103 



XXVIIT. 



TO JOHN BADI^US. 

[Badifeus was pastor of a Protestant congregation in 
the town of Orange, France, and suffering under the first 
ebulUtions of the bigotry of Louis XIV. which terminated 
in the revocation of the edict of Nantes.] 

Westminster, April 21, 1659. 

Reverend and illustrious Sir: 

Of so long a delay in answering you, I trust 
our friend Dury^ will not hesitate to acknowledge 



^ John Dury, a Scotch clergyman. He served during 
the Interregnum as agent to conciliate the Reformed and 
Lutheran churches of Germany, and laboured for that ob- 
ject forty years. His protracted efforts producing no good 
result, he as a last resource to accomplish liis pacific pur- 
pose, wrote a solution of the book of Revelation, thinking 
to establish at least one subject in whicii all sects might 



104 MILTON'S LETTERS. 

that I may attribute the fault to himself; for as soon 
as he delivered the statement whicji you desired me 
to hear, of what you had done and suffered in the 
cause of the Gospel, I prepared this letter, that it 
might be ready for the first courier ; fearing that you 
might put a bad construction on my continued si- 
lence. In the mean time, I am under great obliga- 
tions to your friend Moulin of Nismes, who, by his 
conversations and kind mention of me, has introdu- 
ced me to the notice of so many excellent men in 
those parts. And although I am not ignorant, that 
I have become known extensively enough — either 
because I did not decline a public controversy with 
an adversary of so much renown, or on account of 
the notoriety of the dispute, or of this species of dis- 
cussion in general — yet I measure my fame by the 



coincide. He was attacked in a pamphlet called ' The 
time-serving Proteus, and ambidexter Divine uncased to 
the world.' The Council of State employed him to trans- 
late Iconoclastes. He was a member of the assembly of 
Divines under the Long Parliament, but afterwards joined 
the Independents. Two letters of his are cited in Milton's 
' Authoris Defensio.' The antiquary Wood furnishes a ca- 
talogue of twenty publications by him. Mosheim gives him 
the character of a zealous but sincere enthusiast. {Eccl. 
Hist. Cent. xvii. sec. 2, part 2, ch. 1.) 



MILTON'S LETTERS. 105 

reputation which I have acquired with the good. 
And I see plainly that you are of the same disposi- 
tion, having, under the incitement of the knowledge 
and love of Christian truth, borne so many labours 
and encountered so many enemies. You act thus 
bravely every day, and are so far from seeking the 
applause of the wicked, that you do not fear to 
rouse their certain hatred and maledictions. Happy 
man ! whom the Almighty has distinguished from 
so many thousands wise and learned in other 
respects, in snatching you from the very gates and 
jaws of hell, to bring you to so remarkable and in- 
trepid a profession of his Gospel. 

And I now have reason to think, that it was 
through the special providence of God, that I did 
not answer you sooner. For understanding from 
your letter that when you were hunted and beset on 
every side by violent enemies, and you properly 
looked around for a refuge in the last extremity, if 
your affairs should reach such a crisis, that England 
chiefly pleased you ; I rejoiced, and not for my own 
sake merely, that you made that determination. I 
was gratified with the idea of enjoying your society, 
and that you thought so highly of my country, but 
grieved that I could see no way of providing for you 
14 



106 MILTON'S LETTERS. 

here, especially as you are ignorant of English. 
But it now very opportunely happens, that a super- 
annuated French minister will die before many days. 
The principal persons of that church, understanding 
that you are not safely situated where you are, (I do 
not state this from doubtful rumours, but have heard 
it from themselves) are very desirous of choosing 
you — nay, actually invite you, in the place of that 
pastor. They have resolved to defray the expenses 
of the journey, and promise that your family arrange- 
ments shall be provided for so that you shall be 
placed on an equality with any of the French clergy 
here : and that nothing shall be wanting which can 
contribute to your willing entrance upon the evan- 
gelical functions amongst them. 

Wherefore if you will hear my advice, reverend 
sir, come as soon as possible to a people who are 
very desirous of you, and reap this harvest, which, 
though perhaps not so fruitful of this world's goods, 
yet I hope (what men of your character are much 
more anxious for) an abundant one of souls. Be 
persuaded that your coming will be welcomed by all 
good men, and that the sooner you come the better. 
Farewell. 



MILTON'S LETTERS. 107 



XXIX. 



TO HENRY OLDENBURGH. 

Westminster, December 20, 1659. 

As you ask pardon for your silence, you will the 
sooner excuse mine, whose turn I believe it was to 
write. I beg you to think that the omission has arisen 
from no diminution of my affection, but studies or 
domestic engagements have prevented, or perhaps my 
laziness has made me guilty of the remissness. You 
inquire after my health, which, by the blessing of 
Providence, is as good as usual. I am far from un- 
dertaking the history of our commotions, which you 
seem to recommend to me : they are more worthy 
of silence, than publicity j and there is a greater 
necessity for some one to allay, than to relate them^. 



^ The Protector died in September, 1658: Richard 



108 MILTON'S LETTERS, 

I join in your apprehension that this civil discord, 
or insanity rather, may make us appear to the ene- 
mies of liberty and religion, lately associated-, too 
ripe for their purposes : they cannot inflict a more 
grievous wound on religion, than we have done long 
ago by our enormities. But I trust that God, for 
the sake of his abused glory, will frustrate the coun- 
sels and designs of the enemy, whatever kings and 
cardinals may meditate or plot. 

In the meantime, I wisli for the Protestant Synod 
of Loudon, which you say is soon to convene^, what 
has never yet happened to any council — a happy 
issue, not like Nazianzen's'* : but it will have done 



Cromwell was deposed April 22, 1569, and at the date of 
this letter, General Monk was rapidly bringing on the res- 
toration : three months afterwards the Long Parliament 
dissolved, and Charles IL was proclaimed on the eighth of 
May, 1660. 

2 For the establishment of monarchy and prelacy. 

^ Bayle states that tliis Synod had been sitting two 
months when this was written, and that Milton must have 
had little correspondence with France not to have known 
it. 

* Allusion is probably made to St Gregory's interference 
in the synodical dispute respecting the incumbent of the 



MILTON'S LETTERS. 109 

enough, if it shall decree nothing else than the ex- 
pulsion of More. As soon as he makes any disclo- 
sures as to his adversary Posthumus, I pray you let 
me know it the first opportunity. Farewell. 



bishopric of Antioch ; his endeavours to reconcile the 
belligerents so excited their animosity, that he resigned 
his own see of Constantinople, in which they had just con- 
firmed him. In one of his polemical works, Milton quotes 
the assertion of Nazianzen, that councils rather increased 
than removed the evils of the Church, and his resolution 
never to attend another. 



no MILTON'S LETTERS. 



XXX. 



TO RICHARD JONES. 

Westminster, December 20, 1G59. 

You apologize so modestly for the long inter- 
val between your letters, when you could more 
justly accuse me of neglect, that I scarcely know 
whether the more to regret your delinquency or 
admire your excuse. But beware of supposing, 
that if you owe me any gratitude, I estimate your 
sense of it by the frequency of your letters. I shall 
consider you most grateful, when my extolled atten- 
tions shall not be emblazoned on paper, but appear 
constantly in your application and merit. In the 
gymnasium of the world which you have entered, 
you have wisely chosen the path of virtue: remem- 
ber, however, that virtue and vice have a common 
road, and that you must advance to where the road 



MILTON'S LETTERS. Ill 

forks. You should now prepare yourself betimes, 
that when you leave the pleasant and flowery high- 
way, you may ascend, of your own accord, (even 
willingly encountering toil and danger,) the steep 
and difficult road which leads to the summit of vir- 
tue only^ This you can attain with much greater 
ease than others, since you are provided with so 
faithful and skilful a guide. Farewells 



^ These figures are drawn from Cebes' niNAS, ano- 
tlier part of which seems to have suppUed a pretty idea in 
' Comus:' 

' Mortals that would follow me ! 
' Love Virtue — she alone is free : 
' She can teach ye how to climb, 
' Higher than the sphery chime ; 
' Or if Virtue feeble were, 
' Heaven itself would stoop to her.' 

And in the Essay on Education : ' we shall conduct you 
to a hill-side, laborious indeed at the first ascent, but else 
so smooth, so green, so full of goodly prospects and melo- 
dious sounds on every side, that the harp of Orpheus was 
not more charming.' 

2 Oldenburgh. 



112 MILTON'S LETTERS. 



XXXI. 



TO PETER HEIMBACH. 

[Milton, happy in escaping unharmed from the inquisi- 
tion for the regicides, their abettors and apologists, remain- 
ed in prudent seclusion until his death ; engaging only in 
literary publications, (in which ' Paradise Lost' was includ- 
ed) which broke but little upon his obscurity.] 

Lo?^DON, August 15, 1666. 

It is no wonder that amidst the deaths of so 
many of my countrymen in this grievous and pesti- 
lential year, that you believed the report of my de- 
cease. If that rumour prevailed amongst you in 
consequence, as it would appear, of your anxiety for 
my safety, I am not displeased. But through the 
mercy of God, who provided a safe retreat for me in 
the country ^ I am still alive and well, and I hope 

1 During the plague of 1665, he resided in a house 



MILTON'S LETTERS. 113 

not incapacitated for any temporal duty which re- 
mains for my performance. It is very grateful that 
you remembered me after so long an interval ; al- 
though the fine language you use to express it 
excites a suspicion that you had forgotten me — I 
mean when you say that you admire the union of so 
many different virtues in me. I should dread too 
numerous a progeny from so many unions, if it were 
not the case that virtues are best nourished, and 
flourish most in narrow and necessitous circum- 
stances. Yet one of them did not make a very 
handsome return for my hospitality ; for what you 
call my political virtue (I would rather you had 
named it patriotism), after cajoling me with its fair 
name, almost expatriated me ! The rest of them 
sing loudly in chorus that ' wherever we prosper in 
rectitude, there is our country'^. 



which his Quaker friend Elwood (who gave the hint of 
' Paradise Regained') procured for him in Buckingham- 
shire. ' Paradise Lost' appeared in 1667 : ' Paradise Re- 
gained' in 1671. 

^ So rendered by Ilayley, who has translated this letter 
in his Life of Milton. The original is, ' reliquarum [vir- 
tutuni] tamen chorus clare concinit — patria est, ubicunque 

15 



114 MILTON'S LETTERS. 

I will conclude, after requesting you, that if you 
find any thing incorrectly written, or a neglect of 
punctuation, you will impute it to the lad who has 
penned this, who is entirely ignorant of Latin, and 
to whom I am forced — not without misery — to dic- 
tate each letter separately. 

I rejoice that your merits as a man, whom I knew 
as a youth of excellent promise, have raised you to 
so honourable a station in the favour of your 
prince^. Wishing and expecting for you all pros- 
perity, I bid you farewell. 



est bene' ; which may also imply his political resignation to 
the change, on the principle of Pope's sophism, 

' Whate'er is best administered is best.' 

^ Heimbach was now Counsellor of the Elector of 
Brandenburgh. 



INDEX. 



' Ad patreni,' quoted, 


49 


Adriana, the fair, 


43 


Aizema, Leo Ab 


71 


Alexander the Great, 


58 


Allegro, L' 


33 


Apollonius Rhod. quoted, 


68 


Areopagitica, 


47 


Aristotle, 


11. 101 


' Artis Logical,' Milton's 


11 


Athens, 


37. 58. 66 


' Authoris Defensio,' 


96 


Badiaeus, John 


103 


Barberini, Cardinal 


. 41. 43. 45 


Bible, Hebrew 


12 


Bigot, Emeric 


85 


Bonmatthei, 


35. 53 


Bradshaw, 


87 


Brass, De 


91. 100 


Byzantine Historians, 


88 



116 



INDEX. 



Calandrinus, 


75 


Callimachus, quoted, 


45 


Cebes, 


111 


Charles I. 


16. 34. 51 


Charles II. 


. 108 


Cherubin, 


42 


Chinese Annals, 


78 


' Clamor,' «fcc. 


63 


Claudian, quoted, 


15 


Colasterion, 


72 


Comus, 


24. 51. Ill 


Cotton, Sir Robert 


87 


Cowper, 


25. 51 


Cromwell, 


56, 107 


Curius, 


21 


Dati, 


47. 52 


' Defensio pro populo,' 


57 


' Defensio secunda,' 


63. 67. 75 


Diodati, 


. 24. 29. 50 


Divorce, Works on 


71, 72 


Doni, J. B. . 


44 


Dury, . 


62. 103 


Elegies, Milton's 


10, 11. 15. 25. 51 


Elwood, 


113 


Eminency, Title of 


45 


England, Political Affairs of 


. 10. 16. 34. 50. 107 


Epigrams, Milton's 


51,52 


Epitaphium Damonis, 


. 25. 47. 60 



INDEX. 117 



Francini, 


50. 53 


Friendship, 


30 


Frost, Mr . 


55 


Gaddi, 


53 


Gill, Alexander 


14. 17. 22 


Greece, 


58 


Greek Language, 


23, 24. 38 


Heath, Richard 


60 


Heimbach, 


83. 102. 112 


Henry of Nassau, 


15 


History, 


92. 101 


Holstein, 


41 


Iconoclastes, 


54 


Italy, . 


34, 35 


Italian language. 


38, 39 


James I. 


10 


Johnson, Dr, referred to, 


16. 25 


Jones, Richard 


80. 89. 97, 98. 110 


Justiniani, 


34 


Language, 


36 ct seq. 


Lawrence, Mr 


97. 102 


' Liber Sylvarum,' 


18. 51 



118 INDEX. 

Lycidas, .... 33. 61 

Lynceus, . . . .70 



Malatesti, .... 53 

Mill, Herman . . . .54 

Milton, Latin Secretary, . . 54 

Milton's Life, Habits, Studies, &c. 

22. 26. 31, 32, 33. 38. 64, 65. 86. 112, 113 
Milton's Blindness, . 64. 67 et seq. 80 

Milton's Father, ... 49 

Milton's Works, . . . 51. 57, &c. 

Milton in Rome, . . 42 et seq. 

More, Alexander . 63, 64. 75. 96. 109 



' Naturam non pati,' &c. 


18 


Nazianzen, 


108 


Oldenburgh, Count 


54. 66 


Oldenburgh, Henry 


62. 77. 90. 95. 98. 107 


Ovid quoted. 


87 


Oxford University, 


78. 81. 89 


Paradise Lost, quoted. 


31. 68. 70 


Paradise Regained, quoted, 


21.32.66.70 


Penseroso, 11 


33 


Philaras, 


57. 66 


Phineus, 


68 



INDEX. 



119 



' Poems,' Milton's 

Prelacy, Milton's Attack upon 

Psalm 1 14 in Greek, 



51 

47. 51 
23 



Quintilian, quoted, 



100 



Ramus, Peter 


11 


Ranelagh, Lady 


80 


Sallust, 


92, 93. 100 


Salmasius, 


57 


Sanford's Life of Milton, 


43 


Serranus, 


21 


Skinner, Cyriac . 


78 


Skinner, Daniel 


79 


Smectyranuus, 


9 


Sonnets, Milton's 


51. 64. 97 


Spanheim, Ezekiel 


73 


Spanheim, Frederic 


75 


Stoup, Lord 


88 


Tacitus, 


92 


Tetrachordon, 


72 


Turretins, 


75, 76 



Usher, Archbishop 



9. 75 



120 INDEX. 

Virgil, quoted, ... 42 

Warton, T. . . . .24 

Young, Thomas . . 9, 10. 20. 21 



ERRORS. 

On page 17 ' would be' is printed for ' are.' 
The surname of Dante (page 52) is Jllighieri. 
Conversaziones (page 53) should be conversazioni. 
For would, in the penultimate line of page 71, read should. 
The reference figure 2, on page 111, should be at ' guide.' 



THE END. 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent; Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: March 2009 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN COLLECTIONS PRESERVATION 

111 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
(724)779-2111 



